Plans for Northgate González LLC’s upcoming store in La Habra call for a 4,000-square-foot “restaurant within the market” that will include a “coffee and juice bar, a deli, a hot foods section, and indoor and outdoor seating areas” for 33, according to documents filed with the city’s planning commission.
“It’s basically the times—we have to stay ahead of the game, and we were finding that just being a regular grocery store wasn’t really cutting it,” said Paola González, Northgate’s real estate marketing coordinator and granddaughter of the founders, Miguel González Sr. and Teresa Reynoso. “We decided to bring this new concept to differentiate ourselves.”
The Anaheim-based grocery chain, which was founded in 1980 and caters primarily to Latino-American consumers, late last year paid $8.2 million for the several buildings that make up La Habra Towne Centre, also home to a CVS, Petco and Jack in the Box. The grocer is investing an estimated $1.3 million to renovate a 38,000-square-foot former Ralphs grocery store that has been vacant since 2006 and make an 8,352-square-foot addition to the east side of the structure.
The project is scheduled to be completed late next year or in early 2018 and will feature a facade with a Spanish Colonial theme, a common thread for all Northgate stores in the state.
The interior layout, meanwhile, will make way for a concept Northgate calls “Mercado,” which was tested this year at two other locations—one in Norwalk and another in Anaheim. It focuses on offering a variety of “grab-and-go” or “oven-ready” meals, fully stocked salsa, soup and salad bars, and a plethora of seafood and organic produce.
“We are rolling it out to the stores (in the communities) where there’s predominantly second- and third-generation Hispanics,” Gonzalez said. “There are more working mothers who don’t have time to make everything from scratch. We make it easier for them, where they still [retain] the value of being able to serve Hispanic dishes.”
The grocery chain plans to relocate its 18,487-square-foot store on 580 W. La Habra Blvd. once the new space is ready for move-in.
Northgate González is run by the founders’ sons, Miguel González Reynoso and his younger brother, Oscar González Reynoso, who share the title of president. The chain ended last year with more than $700 million in sales and about 5,500 employees, according to Business Journal estimates. It has invested some $73 million in commercial properties over the last five years, including its distribution center in Anaheim. It’s also landlord to tenants at about a dozen smaller retail spaces it acquired in the La Habra Towne Centre deal.
