Buildings and businesses play musical chairs

Several businesses will be moving over to this end of the mall

As noted in the Business News section, several of our businesses are relocating this summer, and there’s additional news and rumors about other changes.

The Wine Cellar owner Erin Palmer was able to reach an agreement with Walgreens to buy out her lease. Walgreens had purchased the building at the east end of the mall at the southwest corner of Murray and Saltzman at the beginning of the year. Other tenants of the building include Mazatlan Restaurant, which is working to secure a lease to move into the former Rococo Restaurant space in the west end of that mall. Thai Lily also wants to move down the way. The sushi restaurant that had been there closed up earlier this year. The dry cleaner was reportedly behind on her rent and didn’t have a lease, so when Walgreens takes over, she will need to move out. Donuts Plus still has time on their lease, but expects to hear from Walgreens with an offer before long. They intend to relocate nearby to serve their enthusiastic customers.

Tom Rocca is a partner in Seven Hills Properties, a San Francisco-based development and property management firm working with Walgreens on the project. He says that Walgreens’ plan is to remodel the building in its existing footprint. That will avoid triggering Washington County Town Center requirements for streetside buildings, road improvements and other measures. He expects that preliminary drawings will be ready to submit to the county in 30-40 days. No further information is available as to schedules, or what the store’s features will be.

WanQ has taken over the bar that was formerly run by Rococo. They are still working to renovate the space next to the Cedar Mill Liquor Store for their restaurant.

Rumors are that the old brick building that used to be WanQ will be torn down, but representatives from Kimco Realty, who owns the Safeway mall, could not be reached to confirm that. Bandito Taco is a separate building and won’t be affected. There’s also a rumor that Safeway will build a gas station in the southeast area of their parking lot, but again, we were not able to reach anyone for confirmation.

Sorry to be so vague, but most of these property owners and managers don’t seem to be interested in providing details about their plans until they have to, for public meetings that have to be held for County permits.

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