Dublin Seeks to Lure Big Retailers to Downtown District
The City of Dublin took a bold step earlier this year by approving a Sales Tax Reimbursement Program that gives businesses that bring in at least $100K/year of new sales tax revenue a credit to help pay for building improvements. Businesses can get half a percent of sales tax refunded to them over a five year period or as soon as they’ve been able to get paid back for their building improvements – whichever happens first. This program was primarily created to help refresh and renovate many of west Dublin’s historic commercial buildings.
Earlier this month, the Dublin City Council voted to expand the Sales Tax Reimbursement Program by extending the reimbursement period to 10 years (from 5 years) for big retailers that generate at least $50M/year in new revenue. This would not apply to existing retailers like Toys R’ Us or Target unless they expanded their stores and could bring in the extra sales.
The extended reimbursement period could be the catalyst that we need to transform Dublin’s Downtown District into a more traditional downtown area.
How can this be?
Many of the improvements that are paid for by the Sales Tax Reimbursement Program include exterior enhancements like expanded roadways, new traffic signals, repaved parking lots, new lighting fixtures, and additional landscaping. Once the Downtown Dublin Specific Plan is adopted, the City of Dublin could strongly encourage retailers to make these improvements and then recover their expenses through the Program.
The current Program has already landed two big fish:
- New Home Inc. will be occupying the former Good Guys site and should provide a boost to the Downtown area by bringing in lots of jobs, shoppers, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in new sales tax revenue each year.
- Graybar Electric brought in 50 new jobs to Dublin and is expected to yield millions of dollars in sales tax revenue over the next 10 years.
The extended payback period will be another arrow in Economic Development Director Linda Maurer’s quiver as she works towards attracting large retailers to the vacant Expo, Mervyn’s, and Circuit City buildings. It is fantastic to see the City of Dublin working with commercial brokers, business owners, and landlords to aggressively recruit new business to our City and re-energize Dublin Downtown.
5:27 PM on October 13th, 2009
Where is the downtown district, again?
5:45 PM on October 13th, 2009
Hi Anonymous – the Dublin Downtown District is generally considered to be the area between San Ramon Road and Village Parkway to the west/east and I-580 and Amador Valley Boulevard to the south/north.
Thx, John Z.
6:08 PM on October 13th, 2009
Let’s get some Green Tech companies to Dublin!!!
1:22 PM on October 15th, 2009
I think Dublin is trying to force “downtown” on us… not one person in Dublin would ever consider that area to be “downtown Dublin…” unless they were in city govt or deal with the city in some capacity… Regular residents will never consider that to be downtown since it lacks what most would consider to be downtown characteristics (tall buildings, or a strip like downtown pleasanton,etc)… Just my 2¢
Also, I’m wondering what buildings are considered “historic” ?
Sorry to be such a jerk/pain/DebbieDowner but “downtown Dublin” and “historic” made me laugh
3:21 PM on October 15th, 2009
I think it’s a good thing that the city is trying to spruce up the downtown area.
As a longtime Dublin resident, I consider that area to be our “downtown”. Dublin isn’t LA, it’s a small town. What do you want? Skyscrapers? It looks like the city is taking steps to make it more of a “downtown”, so why don’t we see how it ends up?
4:21 PM on October 15th, 2009
tell anyone in the Tri-Valley Area, “Hey, I’ll meet up with you in downtown Dublin” and they will look at you with a blank stare…Let’s be honest, no one calls it “downtown Dublin”—
No, i definitely don’t want to be like LA, but I thinks it sounds silly to call it downtown Dublin at this time.. Maybe later it will have those qualities to make it seem like a downtown, but for now it doesn’t—
Downtown Los Gatos, Pleasanton, Livermore, Benicia, etc.. Those are all good examples of a small-town downtown,… The fact that John has to tell people where downtown is is probably a good sign that even us Around Dublin enthusiasts aren’t even sure where dowtown Dublin is–
8:09 AM on October 16th, 2009
Just got this:
Tim sent a nuAlert
I want to officially welcome Tria Beauty to Dublin, a high-growth company with nearly 100 employees moving into the Dublin Corporate Center.
Way to go, Dublin! This company used to locate in Pleasanton, CA:-)
10:02 AM on October 16th, 2009
Wow, very cool– Would love to see a small story/interview with their CEO, asking them what’s exciting for them in their move to Dublin, what attracted them,etc..
Great to see!
12:15 AM on October 21st, 2009
I am just wondering if anyone contacted Whole Foods Market about this new program. This should benefit them a lot. Hopefully they can start to build the store sooner rather than later.
11:20 AM on February 21st, 2010
Dublin is the new Bombay. If you think it’s crappy looking now, just give it 10 years! Dublin has always and will always be the armpit of the Valley.
11:48 AM on March 25th, 2010
The historic bldgs are on Dublin Blvd west of San Ramon Valley Blvd and south toward 580. Elementary school children visit it as a field trip.
I would like to know that recruitment efforts are made to Stein Mart which would fit in nicely near Target or closer to Burlington Coat Factory, or esp. by Marshall’s. They are a smaller version of a Ross/TJ Maxx/Marshall’s with nice goods. Stein Mart or Home Goods, owned by the same folks as Marshall’s would be a good idea for the Mervyn’s vacancy.
Having a Trader Joe’s on Alcosta where the Asian market was would also be good.
I’d like to see more restaurants recruited for the west side. Elephant Bar, Cheesecake Factory and PF Chang’s have done very well. It would be nice to have an Olive Garden in Dublin.
3:20 PM on April 17th, 2010
what ever happened to New Home Inc.? Are they still coming as we see no sign of any work at the site. Did they pull out? Anyone?
7:55 AM on April 18th, 2010
Hi Anonymous – I haven’t heard anything about New Home Inc. recently. I’ll check for a status on their opening.
Thx, John Z.
4:31 PM on April 20th, 2010
Hi Anonymous – New Home hasn’t indicated that they plan to pull out of Dublin. However, they haven’t picked up their permit from City Hall. They may be trying to line up financing.
Thx, John Z.
7:30 PM on April 18th, 2010
Two totally random posts, but they are finally back to work on rebuilding the new bridges for the new Bart station. Also, John this might be hard to find out, but what are they building at the end of Gleason just inside the Camp Parks Base? They are doing a lot of grading.
7:02 PM on April 19th, 2010
Hi Anonymous – I’ll see if I can get any info on the Camp Parks project.
Thx, John Z.
10:09 PM on April 26th, 2010
Thanks John on the New Home Inc. question.
6:13 PM on May 12th, 2010
I hope this isn’t bad news for Dublin, that Sybase would leave hear now that they are being bought.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/05/12/financial/f144144D73.DTL&tsp=1
6:14 PM on May 12th, 2010
Hi Anonymous – you bring up an excellent point/concern. We need to keep SAP/Sybase’s operation right here in Dublin. Hopefully, SAP will provide more insight into what they plan to do with the Dublin site.
Thx, John Z.
6:23 PM on May 12th, 2010
http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_15070825
John there is also this article wich explains a little more that Sybase will still be a stand alone company, but operate as “Sybase a SAP company”.
9:33 PM on May 12th, 2010
Hi Anonymous – thank you for providing the link to this story. It is a relief to hear that Sybase will be operated as a separate division/company within SAP. We need to keep Sybase’s high paying and high-tech jobs here in Dublin.
Thx, John Z.
11:35 PM on August 5th, 2010
One really good way to add an improvement to the appearance of the Big Lot shopping area is to take down the Big Lot sign that stands tall in the parking lot…I drive by it every day on my way home…and now with all the improvements around it stands out as a real eye soar..