WATSONVILLE >> The former bowling center on Auto Center Drive will be demolished before the end of the year to make way for Tractor Supply Co.
The Santa Cruz Seaside Co., which owns the property, has closed a deal to build the store and lease it to the Brentwood, Tennessee-based retailer for 15 years with options to renew, according to broker Jon Stansbury.
“Everybody”s very happy,” said Stansbury, senior vice president at Terranomics Retail Services. “Consumers, agriculture and do-it-yourself residents will really benefit from this. There”s no other retailer like this in Watsonville now.”
For the city, the development on a site between major car dealerships and Grocery Outlet will mean jobs and, officials estimate, $30,000 to $40,000 in annual sales tax revenue.
Kurt Overmeyer, the city”s economic development manager, described the business as a destination store.
Tractor Supply Co. is geared toward rural and suburban customers, offering a range of merchandise, from work and casual clothing and boots to tools and pet and livestock supplies.
“It fits the zoning. It fits the traffic,” Overmeyer said. “It”s as good an outcome as possible for what was going on there.”
The property has been vacant since 2010, when the owners of Cabrillo Lanes closed the bowling center due to financial pressures. A previous owner had gone bankrupt, and after a gang-related shooting at the center injured a 7 year old in early 2010, business dropped off for the new owners.
Since then, the building has decayed. Overmeyer said bringing it back up to standards has been estimated to cost $1 million or more.
The plans for a new building include 15,000 square feet of retail space inside and 15,000 square feet outside. In comparison, the Target at The Overlook shopping center on Main Street and the Home Depot on Green Valley Road have more than 100,000 square feet each.
Founded in 1938 as a mail-order company, Tractor Supply has grown to more than 1,300 stores in 48 states, the nearest outlet in Gilroy. Traded publicly on NASDAQ under the symbol TSCO, the company reported sales of $5.2 billion in 2013.
Construction of the Watsonville store is expected to start in early 2015 and be complete by mid to late summer.
Boos Development Group Inc. is in charge of the project.
