This is the vacant lot on the east side of San Pablo Avenue near Victoria by the Bay, a parcel that apparently was going nowhere as commercial property (from a private perspective) because of the perceived poor sight issues,* so this was a pretty good pickup (and a deal)…

Hercules buys land for possible grocery store
By Tom Lochner

Hercules has agreed to buy a 6.37-acre, commercial-zoned parcel on San Pablo Avenue about a half-mile north of Highway 4 for $3.4 million.

That is slightly less than the owners, a group of doctors, paid for the land several years ago, said City Manager Nelson Oliva.

Escrow is expected to close March 23, said City Attorney Mick Cabral. He announced the deal following a closed session of the Hercules City Council last week.

The parcel, on the southeast corner of San Pablo Avenue and Victoria Crescent East, once belonged to the now-defunct Pacific Refining Co. refinery. A successor, Hercules LLC, a subsidiary of Catellus Development Corp., cleaned up the parcel, which is ready to be developed, Oliva said.

It lies between the Victoria by the Bay residential subdivision, developed by Hercules LLC, and the future Hill Town mixed-use development, and has about 500 feet of avenue frontage.

The price the city will pay comes out to about $534,000 an acre.

Oliva said a potential use for the site would be a grocery store of 45,000 to 55,000 square feet.

Such a store once was envisioned for a nearby property, the so-called Parcel C west of San Pablo Avenue. But Wal-Mart bought that 17.25-acre tract in late 2005, hoping to build a 147,000-square-foot store there, later scaled down to 142,000, then 99,000, square feet.

Late last year, Wal-Mart called off its plan and put Parcel C up for sale. Company spokesman Kevin Loscotoff said Wal-Mart can serve its Hercules customers through stores in Martinez 10 miles away and Richmond six miles away. The Richmond store, at Hilltop Mall, opened in 2007.

Broker Steve Edwards of Potter-Taylor & Co. of Sacramento said Wal-Mart paid about $17 a square foot in 2005 for Parcel C. That would be about $740,000 an acre, or about $12.8 million for 17.25 acres.

In early December, Edwards said Wal-Mart was seeking a price “in the high teens” of millions for Parcel C.

* The site is hidden from view from I-80 and is tucked away, giving the owners pause about developing the site.