Fresh news for Oak Park shopping center
By Sophia Fischer sfischer@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers CHANGES- The former Ralphs store at the Oak Park shopping center will be leased to new tenants.

The building that used to house a Ralphs and Rite Aid in the Oak Park shopping center on the southeast corner of Kanan and Lindero Canyon roads will finally have new tenants.

New businesses also will be moving into other parts of the shopping center.

The former Ralphs site, vacant for almost five years, was purchased for $7.5 million by Amherst Real Estate Capital, a Los Angeles-based firm that owns industrial, retail and commercial property in Southern California, Nevada, Arizona and Colorado.

The 45,000squarefoot building will be split among a number of retailers, according to Edward Choi, an Amherst partner. An agreement is being finalized with Tesco, a British international retail company, for an all-natural food market called Fresh and Easy. The store will occupy 15,000 square feet. Tesco is opening up neighborhood convenience stores in several American markets, including Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley.

Negotiations are underway with other retailers to fill in the remaining space, according to Choi. He hopes to have the market in by December and the other businesses in by June, depending on how long the county permit process takes.

"We want to get this done for the community as soon as possible," Choi said.

The outside of the building will be refinished in shades of green and yellow to match the rest of the shopping center, according to Dago Barajas, president of Jeda Designs in Pasadena. The current three levels in the upper middle part of the building will be changed to one, flanked by towers on each end.

"We want people to know where the building ends and where it starts," Barajas said.

This is the only property Amherst owns in the Conejo Valley. The company will soon close on an industrial facility in Chatsworth.

"We liked the (Oak Park) neighborhood and thought it had a strong demographic," Choi said. "It's hard to find buildings like this in these upper-class areas."

The stores opening in other parts of the shopping center include Treasured Memories, a scrapbook store, and Wells Fargo Bank. Cisco's Mexican restaurant will take the former Rustlers space.