Work begins on new business coming to old Santa Maria Costco building

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - A new business is planned to occupy the old Costco building in Santa Maria.

After sitting vacant since 2017 when Costco moved to a new location just down Bradley Road to the Enos Ranch development, the building is currently being renovated to house a Furniture Land showroom.

"It''s a beautiful showroom that we're going to open up here to the community," said Furniture Land co-owner Wail Ibrahim. "It's going to be about, 70,000 square feet of showroom space with all different brands and different styles of furniture. It's going to be a one of a kind place. It's for sure going to be the biggest furniture store and biggest showroom in Santa Barbara County."

Furniture Land is a large-scale furniture business that currently has locations in three other cities, Fresno, Visalia, and Bakersfield. Ibrahim added the store would not only carry traditional furniture, such as sofas, beds, dining room and living room sets, but also appliances as well.

Ibrahim said the company has been looking at adding a new store in Santa Maria for quite a while and felt like the high-profile location of this site, situated along Bradley Road and Stowell Road, right off of Highway 101 is the right place to expand.

We're just super excited to serve the community here," said Ibrahim. "We did have other locations in mind and just thought this would be the perfect location for the next venture. It's needed for the community. It's needed for the county and it's going to be a positive. We have a few anchor stores that are here and that makes this a prime location." 

With several businesses located nearby, including Michael's, BevMo! and Trader's Joe in the same shopping center, as well as other businesses along Bradley Road, including Hobby Lobby, Office Depot, and several restaurants, the City of Santa Maria believes the new store will benefit the entire surrounding area.

"We always want to see our tenant spaces occupied and to have a new business come in and take over an existing space is very important not only for the city, but also for that center in general," said Frank Albro, Santa Maria Principal Planner. "To have active business going on so we don't have dead spots in the center that helps with the overall success of the center as well. The idea is when you have a commercial center, the traffic that may be headed to one store might spill over and walk into your store and result in additional sales, so that synergy between occupied tenant spaces is always important for commercial centers."

For those who visit see the location right now, it looks just as it has since Costco moved out seven years ago.

However, on the inside, workers are currently starting the renovation project, and later, will move to the outside, to transform the structure into a dramatically different new-look building.

"It's a complete facelift to the front of the to the front of the building," said Ibrahim. "We're going to add about nine windows that are about about 18 feet wide, the windows, and we're doing a beautiful canopy, a huge canopy entrance about 20 feet high. Doors are going to be all glass, so we're just going to fit the theme of the whole of the whole area here."

Just down the street, another redevelopment project is soon coming to Santa Maira.

Last week, the Santa Maria Planning Commission approved plans that will bring new businesses to the site where the former Roadhouse Grill and Hometown Buffet restaurants used to occupy.

The two adjacent buildings have been vacant since both restaurants closed down several years ago.

"We have a new car wash and a new Starbucks location that is going to be built where the Roadhouse Grill building currently is," said Albro. "At the Hometown Buffet, it's going to be converted to a real estate office. The new development of the car wash, Starbucks and new office space should, like the occupancy of the new furniture location, add some more commercial customers to that center. To have those spaces vacant and so visible from the freeway, it's very good to have, new development occurring. In the case of the Roadhouse Grill, no other restaurant, no other retail establishment was interested in that building."

Shoppers visiting the area on Thursday said they are eager to see businesses coming to the two locations.

"It's nice to see some growth," said Karen Clement of Nipomo. "You kind of hate to see storefronts go vacant for a long period of time because then you're not sure if it's ever going to get filled, so it's nice to have something going in here."

No known date on when construction will begin on the new Starbucks, car wash and office space, but Ibrahim said Furniture Land is hoping to open by the end of the year.