A building left vacant by Sam's Club last year will be filled by a department store in 2005.
La Curacao, a department store that markets to the Hispanic community, has agreed to lease the empty 103,000 -- square-foot building on Harriman Place in San Bernardino. The site sits alongside Interstate 10 in a fast-growing region of the city.
The San Bernardino City Council approved a deal between the retailer and the city's Redevelopment Agency to bring the retailer to the Inland Empire.
The store, planned to open next spring, will be the fifth for the Los Angeles-based chain and the first in the Inland Empire.
Gary Van Osdel, executive director of the San Bernardino Economic Development Agency, said the city worked for two years to land La Curacao.
Once completed, the store is expected to employ more than 100 people.
"We got word that they were an up -- and -- coming company that was addressing the needs of Hispanic shoppers," Van Osdel said. "Because of the demographics of our area, we felt they would be a good fit."
However, city officials had hoped to entice the chain into opening a store at the Carousel Mall in downtown San Bernardino. The mall has struggled to hold onto a retail presence. It is converting former retail stores into office space.
"We thought it could be a last gasp attempt to keep that mall at some sort of a retail posture," Van Osdel said. "Clearly La Curacao didn't want to come in and anchor a sinking ship."
Instead the chain enters one of the success stories of San Bernardino's redevelopment efforts. Seeking a larger store, Sam's Club moved one block east into a 23-acre retail center called The Hub. The Hub is the centerpiece of a redevelopment effort that replaced part of a residential neighborhood with retail development.
BJ's Pizza and Brewery opened in the center two months ago. Plans for the site include two hotels as well as several new restaurants.
Despite the fast pace of development nearby, Greg Greenstein, president of J.G. Management Co., which manages the former Sam's Club building, said there was little interest from other possible tenants.
Greenstein said La Curacao was the only user interested in the building.
