Ann Wishart, Valley Press Business Editor
March 30, 2005
"Palmdale retail businesses multiply"
 
PALMDALE - Retail businesses on 10th Street West are due to pop up like - well, like poppies - where the traffic pipeline intersects with avenues O-8 and O-4. Anyone sliding through Palmdale on the Antelope Valley Freeway has seen the construction of the Wal-Mart Supercenter to the north of Sam's Club. The 214,030-square-foot structure will be a general merchandise store with a grocery store component, according to Stan Rothbart of Rothbart Development Co. based in Los Angeles.
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The Supercenter will join a handful of smaller chain stores that have taken up residence in the area, including Office Depot, Game Stop, Subway, T-Mobil, Starbucks and a Wells Fargo Bank branch. Since Sam's Club and Kohl's opened at Destination O-8 in 2004, the acreage surrounding them has been filling in, but there is plenty of room for more shopping opportunities for the Valley's residents.
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One of the next facilities to be started in across 10th Street West - a 60,000-square-foot center planned by Jim Cole, developer with Land Inc. Cole said he expects to have approval in two to three weeks from the city to break ground in the summer for the retail center, including a restaurant and a fast food location. Calling his new project Matilija Plaza, after a yellow-and-white poppy that grows in Southern California, Cole said the sign at the site is outdated.
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Retail expansion is not limited to the east side of the Antelope Valley Freeway. A few more jewels are due to be added to the necklace around the Antelope Valley Mall. Famous Dave's barbecue restaurant, based in Eden Prairie, Minn., plans to build northeast of the mall and has a tentative opening date of June. Johnny Carino's Country Italian, a casual, full-service restaurant, is likely to open within the year.
 
Also within sight of the freeway is construction of a Hampton Inn south of Rancho Vista Boulevard, and a building that will include a Sit and Sleep furniture store, as well as a variety of smaller shops.