It’s hardly worth being a monopoly anymore, which is sad, especially if you’re a big fan of top hats or Scottish Terriers. PG&E is discovering this first-hand. In April, the Public Utilities Commission took the San Francisco-based energy producer and distributor to task, telling the utility to stop threatening to withhold power from Marin County’s new utility agency, the Marin Energy Authority (MEA). The Authority was founded on the notion that Marin businesses and residents desire more green energy.
In 2002, California passed a law stipulating energy providers must cooperate with community choice aggregators, which means PG&E is obligated to work with Marin County. This must sting some, considering PG&E is planning to spend $35 million to keep Marin and San Francisco counties—and anybody else who has the bad taste to challenge the Big Dog—from setting up their own energy shops. As of mid-April, it had spent $28 million in the name of protecting its dominance in the energy industry. PG&E authored Proposition 16, which those of you who are registered to vote in this fine state will find on your June primary ballot. Prop 16 calls for a 66 percent majority vote before a city, county or public entity can buy and distribute energy to its constituents.
You really have to love this a little, since it’s a nifty blend of old and new, traditional and modern. PG&E grabs hold of the old political truism that a third of the electorate will vote against free money, motherhood and the American way at any given moment, if only because a third of the electorate is busy earning a living, sleeping or being a whack job. So it’s no surprise PG&E would flex a little muscle to hold onto its monopoly. What is a surprise is the PUC slapping the utility around.
Retail expansion in Marin?
For all of the fingers-crossed chatter about the economy making its way back from a place called oblivion without small details like job creation, the notion of building new retail space in Marin comes across as a surprise. But to the folks who make decisions back at Target-central in Minnesota, it’s more about the timing and details. Last year, Target said it was placing the opening of new stores on hold, so the proposed San Rafael site, which is located at the Shoreline Center adjacent to the Home Depot, was in limbo. But with the clock ticking on its planning application (Target had until mid-April to either update or shelve it), Target management decided to move forward.
The new version dumps the Super Target concept, which would have included a grocery component, in favor of a regular model. This isn’t only a reflection of how the space in the new store would be used, but also a nod to the new Mi Pueblo grocery store in the Canal. The new Target location, which still needs to gain city approval, would be 137,000 square feet and would create as many as 300 new jobs. Target is already huddled with the Canal Alliance, a well-established group in the impoverished neighborhood, about outreach regarding the new jobs. The city anticipates the new store, slated for a March 2012 opening, will generate $675,000 in sales tax revenue for the Mission City that has its own budget worries.
In an exchange of retailers specializing in rock-bottom goods, Big Lots is out at Novato Fair and Dollar Tree will be in next month. The 3,000-square-foot location will be the third Dollar Tree in Marin and just one of 225 new locations Dollar Tree hopes to open in 2010. The new store won’t do much in the way of creating jobs, as the store manager will be the only full-time employee.
The Larkspur location of Trader Joe’s is expanding into the space next door that used to house Party America, which greeted 2010 by shutting down. Currently, the Pasadena-based grocer has 10,000 square feet of space in the former home of Tower Records. The new space will add 2,600 square feet to the cramped store, letting the retailer add storage and possibly some checkout area.
The strip mall is owned by Rawson, Blum and Leon, a San Francisco asset management firm. Other tenants in the center include BevMo, Men’s Wearhouse, Cost Plus and Vitamin Shoppe. The small mall traded books for bottles when BevMo took over the location of Barnes and Noble when the bookstore moved to the Town Center in Corte Madera.
On the downside, San Rafael consumers say goodbye to Pacific Lumber & Hardware, a store that took care of residents from Terra Linda and Santa Venetia neighborhoods. A friendly manner and lots of know-how and advice was the rule at Pacific, and shoppers are unlikely to find the same experience at larger chain stores.
Wire fraud? In Marin?
The owner of Glass Emporium of Marin, Mill Valley resident Mehrdad Hakimian, is prepping for a June 11 sentencing on a conviction of nine counts of wire fraud, a count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of obstructing justice as well as destroying evidence to impede an investigation in connection with a federal investigation into repairs made at 60 stores across the country. Each count carries a possible 20 years in a federal slammer. A jury convicted Hakimian of having company employees falsify repair invoices heading to insurance companies, as well as charging for molding that was never used and lying about the grade of glass used in repairs.
The investigation began when a whistleblower from a Tennessee store dropped a dime on the FBI.
Surprise!
