North Bay Business Journal

SAN RAFAEL — Product quiz: What’s been on retail shelves for 50 years, has a life span of 100,000 years and causes 50,000 visits to the emergency room a year?

The answer is the blister pack, the ubiquitous and widely hated polyvinyl chloride (PVC) clear plastic packaging that entombs just about everything from AA batteries to Zippo lighters.

On July 12 the Santa Rosa Planning Commission voted 6-1 to approve redevelopment of the vacant Gottschalks store at Coddingtown regional mall in Santa RosaI as a single-story Target department store. Questions about the number of planned part-time vs. full-time jobs brought the matter back to the commission twice after initial approval in June.

Take this week’s NBBJ Pulse Poll: Was the Santa Rosa Planning Commission correct in approving the Target store project in Coddingtown over opponents’ contentions about employee wages and benefits?

SANTA ROSA — Target Corp. wants to replace the vacant Gottschalks store building at Coddingtown Mall with a 144,000-square-foot store.

A number of major private-sector construction projects will be under way or are set to begin in 2012: Grady Ranch, San Rafael; Madera Vista, Corte Madera; East Washington Place, Petaluma; Marin County Emergency Operations Facility, San Rafael; Safeway expansion, Petaluma; Bell Village, Windsor; Multitenant warehouse, Napa; Kaiser data center expansion, Napa; The Barlow, Sebastopol; and Napa Century Center, Napa.

SAN RAFAEL — A community impact study released today on a planned 137,000-square-foot Target found that in the next four years the store would generate 164 net new jobs, a 3.6 percent net increase in retail sales and a net boost of $646,000 a year in city revenue, yet grocery and drug store sales would slip 2.9 percent because of the competition.

Also: Tracking the Target proposals; new phase for Napa Gateway

NORTH BAY – Target Corp.’s decision to close all its gardening departments will include five of the nine stores in the North Bay.

SAN RAFAEL — Up against a mid-April deadline to submit an amended project application for its planned 137,000-square-foot store in Shoreline Center, Target Corp. on Thursday filed the document with three minor changes. The retailer wants to open the store by March 2012 and expects to employ 250 to 300 people, mostly from the surrounding area of the city.

The Marin County retail shopping centers market ended 2009 in a healthy condition with a vacancy of 6.3 percent compared with the balance of the state. This market kept its resiliency in 2009 despite the economic troubles, reporting no change in vacancy year-over-year.

SAN RAFAEL — After tabling plans nearly a year ago for a new 137,000-square-foot department store, Target Corp. now wants to move forward with a reconfigured version of the east San Rafael project.

NOVATO — Target acquired the Smith & Hawken brand and other intellectual property from the lawn-and-garden retailer owned by Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. The Novato-based retail chain had announced last July that due to the economy and a “lack of scale” it would close its 56 stores, including the one in Marin County employing 100.

SAN RAFAEL — Target Corp. has delayed plans for a 137,000-square-foot store in San Rafael’s Shoreline Center as the department store chain scales back planned store openings, but the retailer continues to pursue a location in a proposed Petaluma shopping center.