Changes in Old Town

Albertson's will shutter State Street store in February

The Lake Oswego Review (January 15, 2015)

 reports that the Albertsons store on State Street will close for good sometime in February.  This will leave a big hole in the State Street shopping center, and diminish food store choices for those living in the East End and Old Town.

What will happen with the space?  The property owner has a FOR LEASE sign out front, but someday the property may be sold for redevelopment.

Remember the Foothills Development Plan and the Portland to Lake Oswego Streetcar Plan?  Each had earmarked the Albertsons proprty for development related to a streetcar line.

As the LO Review points out, when Albertsons is gone, the Safeway store on A Avenue will be the only grocery store left in the East End.  And... the Safeway block is marked for other purposes in the revised (2004) Redevelopment Plan.  Who knows if a grocery would be included in a new development.

If the Safway closes too, and there is no replacement all-purpose grocery store, then the grand plan of having a walkable town center where residents can "meet their daily needs" within a half-mile of their homes is DOA. Old Town will be in that situation after February.  Maybe people will eat out more.

All the plans and planning are doomed when executed because humans rarely behave the way they were supposed to, and the market does what it does, irrespective of one city's plans. 

Give it your best shot!  Predict the future!
If the Albertson's property is ever redeveloped:  what do you think will happen on the site?  Should the present Oswego Village buildings remain or should there be apartments there instead?

Here are other plans for the area that have been created from 2010 to 2012, but maybe you see something the planners and designers didn't.