Future of Carr’s space left to speculation

PALMER — Carrs/Safeway is moving dirt for a new store across the street from its old one, but city officials say they don’t really know what will happen with the grocery store’s vacated space.

“They have not approached us on that yet. We’re obviously very, very interested, but I don’t think they’re at the point where they’re prepared to discuss their future with the city,” said City Manager Bill Allen.

Carrs/Safeway Anchorage Regional Manager Glenn Peterson said the new store should open at the end of February. The hope is to have the walls and roof up in the next couple of weeks so the interior work can proceed after the weather gets cold.

He said the old store was a little over 40,000 square feet and the new one will be 57,000. There will be a meat counter, seafood department, a bigger floral department, a Chinese food counter, an olive bar and a sushi bar as well as a Starbucks with a sit-down area and a fireplace.

As for what’s going in the old spot, Peterson also didn’t have any answers. Carr Gottstein Properties leases that space to Safeway.

“We own most of our own properties. That one we didn’t,” he said. When Safeway bought Carrs, “there was still 11 years left on the lease; it’s up now.”

Palmer Mayor John Combs said he also hasn’t heard what will happen to Carrs’ portion of the Pioneer Square mall.

“There’s rumors floating about that they’re going to try to rent out everything retail. There’s talk that the borough might use the building,” Combs said.

But those are rumors.

Combs said he’d like to know what’s going there, but it’s not uncommon for him to be in the dark until after a new business has opened up shop.

City Councilman Richard Best said he’s heard nothing besides the same rumors the mayor has. But it’s private property. Carr Gottstein Properties can do what it wants with it.

“It’s private ownership. I’m sure that the Carrs Gottstein folks are not anticipating it being (vacant) for too long,” he said. “They’ve had problems for years renting out portions of it, but I think this might kind of allow them to open up the whole facility.”

Multiple calls to Carr Gottstein Properties were not returned as of press time. As for Allen, he said having a vacant mall there wouldn’t be good for the city.

“Anytime you have a vacant building in a community, that sends the wrong message,” Allen said.

He said Palmer has a few — the old school district administration building, the old Gold Miner’s Hotel and the old morgue come to mind. “But otherwise, things are looking pretty good. There’s not a lot of empty retail or office space in the city.”

Carrs/Safeway’s Peterson said he thinks the new store location will serve the company well. For one thing, it won’t have the strange amalgam of access roads. Peterson was manager of Carrs Palmer when it first opened. He said the store used to be much easier to access than it is now.

“In 1984 things were a little simpler,” Peterson said.

Plans for the new store showed a new intersection on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway in front of the new store. Peterson said that traffic signal comes with a left turn lane for easy access.

Site plans filed at around the time the company was going through the city permitting process showed a spot for a Carrs gas station. Peterson said that will come later. They’re not building one as of now.

“I want to get a fuel station and I think we’re going to leave space for one in the future,” he said.

Carr Gottstein Properties’ web site lists the Pioneer Square Shopping Center as one at which perspective tenants can lease space. It lists the square footage available as between 625 and 13,800. But it also lists Carrs/Safeway as its anchor tenant.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.