The Petaluma-born company, which left town in 1976 but announced earlier this year it wanted to return, is in discussions with two developers about building a home improvement store and lumber yard here.
A chunk of land next to the city?s former sewer plant on Hopper Street and a slot in Regency Centers? East Washington Place shopping center are both being eyed, but planning for the Hopper site is further along, said David Proctor, Friedman?s chief operating officer.
The company is talking with site owner Basin Street Properties about purchasing 10 acres of the 40-acre ?Riverfront? parcel for a Petaluma store, Proctor said. Discussions with Regency Centers haven?t progressed as far, he said.
?We are farther along with Basin Street in terms of putting together an outline of a plan,? he said.
Unlike a proposal announced in March, the home improvement store would not be built on the former Hopper Street sewer plant and would not be part of a larger mixed-use development of homes and commercial space on the Basin Street parcel, Proctor said.
?It?s totally bifurcated from anything else,? he said.
After the March proposal came forward, city officials said Friedman?s would be a welcome business in Petaluma, but expressed concerns about the timeline for decommissioning the sewer plant site and lack of vehicle access for the proposed location.
The former plant property could not be ready for sale in time to meet the Friedman?s timeline of an October 2010 store opening, the city said.
Caulfield Lane would need to be extended west across the railroad tracks to reach the site, and there are no immediate plans for a bridge over the Petaluma River to provide a secondary access point.
But Proctor said a home improvement store built separately, and not as part of a larger mixed-use development, would create fewer traffic issues for the site.
?The secondary access issues are substantially reduced by us doing a stand-alone home improvement store on 10 acres,? he said.
He described the company?s timeline for a new store as being ?as soon as possible,? likely opening in 2011.
Since the closure of Adobe Lumber, Yardbirds and most recently Home Depot Yardbirds, Petaluma shoppers have shrinking options in town for home-improvement materials, and ?We would love to help be a solution to that problem,? Proctor said.
Friedman?s isn?t the only large-scale home improvement store looking to locate in town. A Lowe?s store is proposed as part of a mixed-use development on North McDowell Boulevard called Deer Creek Village.
City Manager John Brown said the city has been eager to work with Friedman?s in finding a Petaluma site, ?because they have a history with the community and because of what they can bring.?
The company has not yet filed a formal development application with the city for either of the two sites it is now investigating, so there haven?t been detailed discussions about the development potential of the properties, Brown said.
?They?ve made a very concerted effort to find property that fits their needs,? Brown said. ?We?re here to work with them.?
Proctor said Friedman?s looked at six sites in Petaluma before narrowing the list to two. He said returning to Petaluma was a longtime goal of co-founder Benny Friedman, as well as his son, Bill Friedman, and grandson, Barry Friedman, who run the business today.
The company started in a former Petaluma junkyard in 1946 before closing down 30 years later, six years after opening a Santa Rosa store. It also has stores in Sonoma and Ukiah and a distribution center in Petaluma.
?We want to return to our roots,? Proctor said.
(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)
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