Burlingame Safeway set to open

Rancher’s Reserve paper lines the inside of the window’s at the nearly completed Safeway at Howard Avenue and El Camino Real Tuesday morning while hurried workers complete small details like placing the address on the building’s facade.

After 14 years, the grand opening is less than two weeks away for the 45,600-square-foot, 24-hour grocery store. On Friday, Oct. 14, the doors are scheduled to open to the public at 8 a.m., said Susan Houghton, director of public and government affairs for Safeway. A select few will get to experience the store beforehand. Already people are scurrying in and out delivering soda and helping to set up areas where their various products will soon be shelved.

"We’re looking forward to the opening,” said Mayor Terry Nagel. "We can’t wait to see what’s inside of that beautiful building.”

Cars are already filling the front lot despite a fence still being up around much of the property. Workers are busy in the upstairs parking lots with finishing touches. Downstairs, plastic covers the outside furniture that will soon allow people a place to sit while grabbing a quick bite.

It’s all the small, last-minute details that are happening now, said Safeway neighborhood liaison Fred Ponce. Ponce estimated the store will start having produce delivered early next week and turn the ovens on to bake bread Oct. 12.

The grocery store at the prime downtown corner of Howard Avenue and El Camino Real will be joined by a separate mixed-use building, pedestrian walkways, many trees and a water fountain corner feature welcoming visitors to Howard Avenue.

The mixed-use building opposite Safeway will feature 12,428 square feet of retail on the ground floor and 5,460 square feet of retail above. Currently, the final exterior changes are going up like tiles and furniture to the roof garden, said Ponce. The building has many noteworthy tenants lined up like Five Guys Burger and Fries, Pizza My Heart, Blu-White Cleaners, Union Bank, It’s a Grind coffee shop, Which ‘Wich Sandwiches. The tenants should be able to start renovating the inside stores just after the Safeway opening, said Ponce, who estimated the first shop would open in November.

The former 6,554-square-foot Wells Fargo building will be refurbished. Pedestrian walkways will connect the site to the rest of downtown. The sounds of tape being taken off the building could be heard Tuesday morning as workers peeled off the plastic used to cover the windows while the building was painted.

A new Walgreens replacing the one at Howard Avenue and Primrose Road is already open at the corner of Burlingame Avenue and El Camino Real.

Plans to rebuild Safeway were first submitted in 1997 and met with concerns that it was not pedestrian friendly. A reworked plan — including a 50,000-square-foot grocery store, 12,000-square-foot Walgreens and a number of shops placed on the corner of Howard Avenue and Primrose Road — debuted the following year resulting in a petition against the proposal boasting over 900 signatures. Community meetings led to no resolution and Safeway eventually pulled the plans.

A new plan for a 66,900-square-foot combined Walgreens and Safeway emerged in 2001 but was rejected by the City Council in 2004. In 2007, Burlingame created the Safeway working group charged with creating design criteria for a new store tailored to the city.

Heather Murtagh can be reached by email: heather@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 105.