Market Coming to TR Produce

Okay, now I know that we are all excited for the "URBAN MARKET" coming to the East Village in the long vacant TR Produce building, but I am pretty bent on the tennant that the Urban Retail Group landed. Wal*Mart will be rolling out a new retail format in response to UK giant Tesco's "Fresh and Easy" concept that invaded the US last year, and US staple, Trader Joe's. However, rather than going with the inexpensive model that we love about "Fresh and Easy" and "Trader Joe's", the Wal*Mart concept is going to be "upscale". Why does everything have to be "upscale" in the East Village? Pt. Loma got a "Fresh and Easy", why can't we save a little money on dine in so that we can drop $100 on every restaurant in the hood? Where is our Trader Joe's?

Hotel Indigo / Strata Update

Hotel Indigo is moving along quite briskly, as they are setting grade forms, and the column cages are rising above street level. This one is scheduled for a June/July '09 opening, and at the current pace, they should meet or exceed that date. On the other side of the block, Yesterday we saw Strata's crane erected, from deep within the 50' pit for the parking structure. This baby wont be completed until some time in 2010, so we'll be looking at the big blue crane for a while.

While Indigo boasts to having a cafe on their ground floor, there is no word from the folks at Hanover Co (Strata owners), as to what will be filling the nearly 12k SF of retail fronting Market St. Lets keep our fingers crossed that we finally get a Trader Joes in our hood!