New ‘shopping center of the future’ finally taking shape in SLO County. Here’s the latest
Construction on a new mixed-use shopping center anchored by upscale grocery store Valley Fresh Market is progressing in Atascadero.
Called the Del Rio Marketplace, the development will include the grocery store, along with multiple buildings for retail, restaurants, offices, light industrial uses like breweries, plus nearly 100 apartments above.
Developers had hoped to open Valley Fresh Market, a Solvang-based grocery store, in winter 2023 but construction delays have set that time frame back a bit, City of Atascadero Community Development Director Phil Dunsmore said.
The corner lot at Del Rio Road and El Camino Real had been quiet for some time before the gray concrete walls of the grocery store went up in recent weeks.
Now, developer Clint Pearce of Madonna Enterprises said he estimates Valley Fresh Market will open sometime between summer to fall 2024.
“The progress is going well, but there’s a lot to do to put together a store like that,” Pearce said.
Valley Fresh Market fills grocery store gap in Atascadero
The city expects a positive reception from the community to the new grocery store considering the lack of full-service grocery stores in the area, Dunsmore said.
“People really, really want a new market because we really only have one regular grocery store for all of Atascadero, for a population of about 30,000,” Dunsmore said. “We have a desperate need for that. We feel that Valley Fresh can fill that need.”
Valley Fresh will help serve residents at the north end of the city, where the city also plans to eventually build new housing projects that include both market-rate and affordable housing units, he said.
The Del Rio Marketplace project will cover 12 acres on the northeast corner of Del Rio Road and El Camino Real and feature retail, residential and light industrial properties.
Atascadero marketplace plans to be ‘shopping center of the future’
The Del Rio Marketplace is “not your typical shopping center,” Dunsmore said. “It’s kind of like a shopping center of the future.”
The project goes beyond regular shopping centers made up of a strip mall and some kind of chain restaurant like an Olive Garden, he said.
“It’s different,” he said. “It’s going to have a grocery store surrounded by areas that actually have apartment buildings above commercial and some roll-up-door commercial, which means like light industrial where it could be a winery or a brewery.”
The marketplace will also have offices, maker spaces, restaurants and more flanking the market.
Four three-story buildings will be mixed-use spaces, Pearce said.
The bottom floor of two of the buildings will be office space or flex office space, with two floors of apartments abvoe. The bottom floor of two so-called “exchange” buildings will be commercial or flex commercial space, also with two floors of apartments above, Pearce said.
The project will bring 92 market-rate apartment units to Atascadero, he said.
Valley Fresh Market is part of the first phase of development, Pearce said.
It will open around the same time as an adjacent building that is also currently under construction, where Central Coast Distillery is one of the tenants that will be renting a light industrial space, he said.
Meanwhile, Pearce said, “We’re getting a lot of interest” from other restaurants and retailers.
The next phase of the project will include mixed-use buildings and retail properties, followed by another mixed-use building in phase three.
This story was originally published October 12, 2023 at 8:00 AM.
