Graig MantleConstruction has been nonstop on Los Osos Valley Road in the new Irish Hills Plaza. Circuit City, located in front of Costco, is now open and many more stores are set to follow.
Almost all of the new center’s tenants will be large chain retailers. PetSmart will have its grand opening during the first part of March, and OfficeMax, Linens ‘n Things, Old Navy and Beverages & More will open sometime during spring or summer.
“The building for the PetSmart store is all but finished,” said Clint Pearce, project developer for the shopping center. He said they are currently stocking the shelves and putting the finishing touches inside the pet supply store.
The large chain stores will provide a composition similar to Madonna Plaza.
“We’re trying not to go head to head in competition with downtown. It’s not boutique shopping like downtown offers,” said Pearce, who has worked with Madonna Enterprises in the local construction industry since graduating from Cal Poly in 1991 with an agribusiness degree.
A new coffee shop called It’s a Grind will also join the major retailers in the center.
“It’s a unique, small coffee chain based out of Southern California,” Pearce said. The coffee house will offer live music, mostly jazz, on some evenings.
There were some questions raised about the center’s similarity to the Madonna Plaza. The neighboring shopping center already has an electronics store, a bath and bedding store, an office supply store, a pet supply store, and a coffee house.
“There is some duplication, but from a consumer standpoint, it drives prices down,” Pearce said.
“Our intention was to build a regional shopping center that would be available to people in the area, as well as service the local market.”
Animal science freshman Kaitlynn Wall said she had mixed feelings about the new shopping center.
“They could be putting in things that we need instead of things that we already have,” she said.
Philosophy senior Maria Cuevas said she was glad to have the new shopping center in town and would definitely use it when it was completed. Cuevas, who lives in Santa Maria, said she currently has to drive to Ventura if she wants to go to an Old Navy.
Of the new center’s resemblance to the Madonna Plaza, she said, “I think it’s bad for the businesses, but it’s always a better thing for us consumers.”
With all the new stores going in, an increase in traffic can be expected on Los Osos Valley Road.
“In conjunction with all the work and the Costco project, there will be a new traffic signal,” Pearce said.
The traffic signal will be near the Arco gas station at the freeway exit on Los Osos Valley Road. Pearce said they were also making efforts to improve the road near the shopping center, but they wouldn’t be widening the road.
As for extending the shopping center toward the freeway in the future, Pearce said, “We don’t have any immediate plans for that. There’s a fair amount of the meadow that we want to preserve.”