So, they got to you, too.

Just kidding. If Target thinks it's economically feasible to do it, who am I to say it isn't.

I like Target. I work at Sears, although I hardly ever buy anything there. I buy a ton of stuff at Target, though, which has my bosses scratching their heads.

I use to go to Target,until I learned that at Christmas-The Salvation Army bell ringers were not welcomed...and Target doesn't contribute to the Marine Corps Toys for Tots...but this may all change with the new President of France...it is said that he is a friend of the U.S.---we'll see

I like Target too.  Higher class than Wal-Mart and K-Mart and they have that chocolate drizzle snack mix.

Not to rain on anyones parade but wasnt river walk supposed to be for more of an upscale type market place??That target store dwarfs the ampitheater and distracts from its architecture..

just incase some folks havent noticed yet..those metal beams will soon be filled with stucko and drywall..so much for the view of the park i guess..I understand they needed to stick something in there to make the space pay for its self..but did the plannig commission do an impact survey in what we were going to lose by installing this gargantous run of the mill Target?? They could have toned it down to one level and spread it out to keep with the lay of the land..

it just cheapens the whole project..kinda like sticking a kmart down on rodeo drive..

Siouxcityranch couldn't have said it any better. Target...BOO! Upscale, Schmuck scale...Why don't you just put a Goodwill there and invite a few homeless men to wander the parking lots. While they're not begging for spare change or offering to wipe windows, they can nap at the park....

Siouxcityranch, the current two story metal frame building is going to be Castle & Cooke's new admin building. They haven't laid the foundation yet for the new Target. One of the conditions is that the architectural design is in union with the areas front and back. It will be interesting to see if this stays true.

my bad?? so we are gonna get 2 gargantous building there now..THATS GREAT!!! why is castle and crook puttin up an admin building anyway..hoiws that hold with what the project was supposed to be in the beginning??couldnt they have built on the other side of stockdale with all the other multi story dwellings..why have a quaint "RIVER" park if no one can see it unless your standing in the parking lot behind the building wit h the dumpsters..now its got the romantic flavor of good ol beach park..WOW wanna spend my nights and weekends there!!! ..guess it does make it easier for the gangsters and druggies to hide out and do their thing....this project started out sooo good..then it turned into a swimmin hole for all the east side to come drown their kids in..and now this..good job guys

I'm with Lois on this one.  The search for an upscale anchor store did not work out.  A Target Store is a good answer. I'm no snob. I shop where I can get the best buys.  Some things I shop at Target for and sometimes even Wal-Mart, 99 cent store,  Winco and even the Cancer Society's  Discovery Shop.

how about a giant open air farmers market instead of an "anchor"?  that would fit in more with the whole "riverwalk" idea than a target.  all the other retailers be damned.  go back to your fresno, your los angeles, your new york.....this is BAKERSFIELD, we do things differently here.  and on that note i have a new slogan for the city....Bakersfield - if you weren't born here, you don't belong here.  life as it should be my arse.

In the article, Castle & Cooke says they couldn't work out a deal with Macy's because they needed more than the 100,000 square feet allowed in the plan.  The City Council approved Target with a building over the previous maximum square footage, so if the Castle & Cooke fought for the larger building for Target, why wouldn't they do it for Macy's?  I think everyone would agree that Macy's is more upscale than Target.

Secondly, the article says Bruce Freeman is frustrated that there isn't more public trust in his company.  For those of us in the southwest our lack of trust in Castle & Cooke can be summed up in two words: Federal Courthouse.  Castle & Cooke wasn't looking out for the community then, so why should we believe they are now?

what he said.

The opposition to Target at Riverwalk (River Walk or RiverWalk) is not having it out for developers, but having it out for development that has no plan. If you know by all the statistical information on demographics for the area that the income level and overall population density is not high enough to support up-scale shopping why sell the area as such to get it graded and sit vacant? Or to then populate the site with one more of the same thing we have all over town. This town does not need one more Target. Target is a fine retailer and good partner for communities by and large, but Bakersfield already suffers from too few choices at the retail level. The only real competition at retail is at the clearance price level where the 99cent stores compete with Box Lots, the Dollar Stores, Goodwill, Tuesday Morning and every pawn shop in town for the race to find the absolute lowest price for a given knocked off item.

My question is why build and continue to plan for all these single family homes and strip centers when wages throughout this community cannot sustain planned growth on projects more than a decade old?  Look at the stalled projects all over this city's perimeter, and tell me we need any more development. Until the business climate changes dramatically in this area there is no point in building one more structure.

Actually fankie i think your open air market is a hell of an idea..everybody could benifiet from that..I wasnt nutso about the higher end stores but I sure as heck dont like seeing something that had so much potential being cheapened with lower end retail stores..dont wanna see baby diapers in the parking lot etc like kmart was off wible road ...I hope its going to be a part of bakersfield we can all be proud of..we need that pride in our city badly

and what adam said..it could remain a tree lined parking lot to hold the over flow for the concerts etc that should be held out there ..the parking for that pretty much SUX..an if the future requires it..build something we need then..might throw in some type of a center for the kids to enjoy for the time being

yeah. that k-mart on wible/wilson was a real jewel wasn't it?  ranks right up there with the zodys that sat vacant all those years.  here's a little bakersfield trivia...does anybody remember White Front and where it was located?  bonus question....what was the name of the soda shop that was right next door?  errrr, it might not have been a soda shopp per se, but they did sell this brand of soda there.

White Front was where Mervyn's currently resides on California. I don't remember the soda shop, but I do remember there was a building supply store called Builder's Emporium back where Lassen's and whatever else is back there now. That whole area along California was so promising at one time, and now it is such a mish-mash of medical offices, churches, office buildings, retail, apartments and dining you just scratch your head and ask, what were they thinking? That California extension district evolved into a six-lane speedway where the residential area that sits in little pockets adjacent to all the various business locations cannot even walk across the street to shop. It is another pathetic misuse of land and opportunity. The Truxton extension is now going through the same bizarre transformation with hodge podge businesses and uses lining a freeway.

winner, adam!  the soda i was referring to was called Pop Shoppe.  good stuff.  they sold it out of that tire shop that sits in front of mervyns parking lot.  builder's emporium...damn, brings back memories.  can't tell you the hours i spent right next door at jimmy's arcade.

we already have three target stores, there's going to be one at valley plaza and one at riverwalk.  ridiculous.  how many do we need?  open air farmers market.  fresh fruit, vegetables, maybe Sea Breeze could sell fresh seafood there.  Hell, Bolthouse or Grimmway could set up and sell their carotts and juices.  you could get lunch, dinner, whatever.  anything but another big box retailer.

I agree, Frankie. I don't understand why developers and chain retail stores insist on over-saturating our communities with the same stores every 3-4 miles.  I think it's an extreme waste of resources and space.

Really.  Heaven forbid we try something different.  Instead those in power want more of the same cookie-cutter garbage.

Let's see if the City once again ignores the shade tree standards for yet another shopping center. How many more blacktop deserts will need to be built before the citizens in this town sit up and take notice (or the City does something about it)? Commercial development is supposed to have a 40% shade canopy. The City not only ignores this standard at existing shopping centers (anyone find any shade at East Hills Mall? I counted three whole spaces with shade trees at full noon, and those were taken by mall employees), but continues to allow new development without doing a simple site plan check for this. (And no, Oleaders do not count as "trees".)
 

Is anybody buying the reason Tandy had a change of heart for this plan? I mean, how often does he side against a developer? Can anyone cite me a single case of this? (Hell, he was behind the "canal" plan south of town, the baseball diamond in the middle of downtown, the federal courthouse in people's backwayds, and every other cluster**** short-sighted development plan.) And suddenly he falls into line and supports the exact same plan he was against mere days earlier. I mean, you can't blame him for being consistent; I'm complaining because he was suddeny inconsistent. For one brief moment sanity reared its ugly head, but then was hammered back into the corner whimpering and cowering.

they want it for the rent frankie...they dont care about anything else.. ..dang I like that open aire market..kind of a fishermans wharf in southern cali.packed full of differnt .small ethnic food shops to do what we called in seattle a walk about breakfasts..grab a bagle here a home made taco there and a german sausage in the middle..wash it down with a fancy coffee or icey health shake from a nice little coffee shop..honest people selling hand made products and I dont mean junk..they would have to pass inspection to keep the quality up..uhhhh OK Im wakin up..another Tar Gaaa' in our not too distant future..ahhh I can smell em fresh diapers now..

Target's supposed to close the one on Wible when the one in the mall opens.  Got that from a little shopper birdie..

Matt..if they aren't going to plant trees, I'll settle for oleanders.  The get really tall, provide at least some shade, and require very little water.  The one in my back yard is up to the power line to the house and I've never watered it.  Whatever water it gets must come from the lawn and shrubs across the driveway.  Lordy,  they really are messy though.

Man I just hate to see it.... like FrankieV2 said we need something that will give us a kind of *town square feel*... you know "Farmers Market" feel.... a meandoring kind of city walk... like they proposed with the *canal thing*..... grass, shops, walkways, spread out, kind of a *general town meeting area*, sculptures, pic-nic areas.... something nice for a change.... somewhere where you can spend some time in a park type atmosphere... we have *big boxes up the a**... we don't need anymore...not a Target... just like Nancy said... close down the old one after the new one is done... how many times have we done this... then we have a big old ugly empty box sitting there waiting for some one to do something with it... stupid is as stupid does... thats us...we already have what... four of them... at least 3 that I know of..... I would rather they got on the ball and finished the Super Wally on Panama.... this town makes me say WHAT? alot these days !!!!

Hey Lois -  Anyone bother to look at those who spoke to the city council in favor of the Target? I believe some were Castle and Cooke employees put on the spot by the higher ups. I'm not anti Target, but at least get it there fairly and honestly. Ask Bruce about that Lois! I'm sure he will deny it, maybe he didn't know, but with a little research you will find the facts. I urge you Lois to look into this and report back. You owe us the facts.  

My problem with the Target is that we don't need it.  A Target at Riverwalk brings nothing new, exciting or fresh to the table.  If you need to shop at a Target that bad there's one 3 miles away on Rosedale Hwy.  How about something that we can all be proud of, something we could all use, something that will draw in out-of-towners, something a little more eco-freindly.  Riverwalk with a Target....it wouldn't draw me there for any of the shops or the park.  Riverwalk with farmers market (perfectly described by Siouxcity)....I'd be there 3 times a week.

I love Target.  And I'm glad they don't allow those damn bell ringers. 

Matt's not a Target guy.

What difference does it make? They all sell the same imports just different pricing or packaging,,, every dime you spend in those type of "stores" helps keep US jobs secure...go spend .....