Although a Lowe?s has long been planned as part of the Deer Creek Village site across from Petaluma Valley Hospital, the company has not signed a formal lease with the developer and Friedman?s is also in discussions about a new store there, developer Merlone Geier Partners said.
Comments in favor of Friedman?s came as the council reviewed a fiscal and economic impact assessment of the project, a report that said the project could boost sales and property taxes, but which critics said was based on old or inaccurate data and therefore flawed.
A Lowe?s home improvement store and lumberyard could generate 40 percent of the $83 million in estimated yearly sales at the project, the report said.
Some $28.3 million of the estimated $35.4 million of the yearly sales at Lowe?s would come from recapturing ?leakage? to stores in other cities, the report said.
Councilmember David Glass suggested that if the project featured locally owned Friedman?s ? a ?Sonoma County tradition? that began in Petaluma in 1946 ? it would give the city more ?bang for the buck? than a national chain.
?We have a unique store in this region, Friedman?s, and they offer even more than the national chains,? Glass said, referring to Lowe?s and Home Depot.
If Petalumans shopped at a local Friedman?s, ?The money would not be electronically deposited in the home offices of these corporate conglomerates,? Glass said.
Friedman?s announced earlier this year that it was looking to return to Petaluma after a 33-year absence. The company sought to build on the site of the city?s Hopper Street sewer plant when that property is decommissioned, but the city said it could not make the property available in time for the desired fall 2010 store opening.
Since that site fell through, Friedman?s has been looking at a half-dozen different locations in Petaluma, including the Deer Creek site.
Councilman Mike Healy said a Friedman?s store would be ?more readily accepted in the community, partially because it is a well respected and local company that?s been here for many decades.?
Some community and neighborhood groups have expressed concern about the impacts of national big-box retailers on existing stores. The Friedman?s company, with stores in Santa Rosa, Sonoma and Ukiah, is still owned by the family of founding brothers Benny and Joe Friedman.
?I hope the applicant will do what they can to make sure Friedman?s is part of the mix when it is finalized,? Healy said.
Although the FEIA is an ?information-only? report that doesn?t require a council vote on its contents, proponents said its findings can be used by the city in deliberating the merits of a project early in the review process.
Councilmember David Rabbitt said telling the developer that a Friedman?s is more desirable than a Lowe?s is ?a wonderful example of that.?
Vice Mayor Teresa Barrett also spoke favorably of Friedman?s, saying it would be a ?much-preferred tenant? for the site.
But she and other council members expressed concern about the FEIA?s findings that about 41 percent of the project?s $83 million yearly sales would come from ?cannibalizing? existing businesses. The report did not identify any businesses that could be at risk of closure.
Other tenants for the 315,000-square-foot project could be stores for apparel, specialty groceries, home furnishings and general merchandise, the report said, though no specific businesses are known yet.
Combined with still-unknown tenants at a Target-anchored shopping center proposed for East Washington Street, the impact on existing stores could be worse than projected, Barrett said.
?It will broaden the impact,? she said. ?There will hardly be anything that won?t get hit by this.?
Mayor Pamela Torliatt said the combined square footage of the two sites is more than is needed to fill Petaluma?s shopping gaps for home improvement supplies and lumber, electronics and general merchandise, which residents say they can?t find in town.
?I?m not sure we need 695,000 square feet to accommodate those three categories,? Torliatt said.
She also pointed out that the $681,000 in estimated yearly sales tax revenue the project would create for the city includes taxes paid on the 41 percent of sales that would be ?shifted? from existing retailers, not ?new? taxes collected.
?Forty-one percent of a project relocating sales from an existing business ? that?s where it gets a little tough for me to swallow,? she said.
(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)
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