MacArthur Boulevard Safeway Safe for Now

Members from the Palisades Citizens Association recently met informally with Safeway officials and others involved in the proposed project at the MacArthur Boulevard supermarket site. They were told that redevelopment plans are on hold. PCA offered its neighbors the following report:

“We have been cautioned that while Safeway may reconsider redevelopment in the future, the sale of the property to a developer was cancelled and that we should expect to see the property and grocery store exactly as it is currently operating for the immediate future. None of this has officially been confirmed by Safeway and instead has been communicated off the record and through third parties. Reasons cited for shelving MacArthur Safeway re-development include: bids submitted for the property in response to Safeway’s September 2014 tender were rejected and the sale was shelved; the acquisition of Safeway stores by Cerberus Capital, scheduled to take place the end of December 2014, has not been completed; . . .

Cerberus reportedly does not need to create as much cash to pay off shareholders as part of the acquisition itself as had been thought. Last week, it announced the sale of 168 Safeway and Albertsons stores west of the Mississippi; this sale appears to have diminished the need to sell assets in Safeway’s Eastern District.”