Mercado del Barrio is measuring up

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Barrio Logan residents cherished high hopes for the Mercado del Barrio, an $80 million residential and commercial project that was 20 years in the making.

They hoped it would bring, foremost, a supermarket. They also wished for shops, restaurants, new homes and a procession of public events and festivals — in short, a town center to revitalize the urban community that was split by construction of Interstate 5 in the 1950s and the Coronado Bridge in the 1960s.

It’s now been 16 months since the long-awaited, two-block Mercado opened, and residents feel they are well on their way to realizing that dream.

Northgate Gonzalez Supermarket opened a 36,000-square-foot store in December 2012, anchoring the development and eventually attracted Tocumbo Ice Cream, T-Mobile, Little Caesar’s Pizza, Fathom CrossFit, Asia Wok, a tax-preparation business and a laundromat.

All that’s missing is a good place to hang out, says Barrio Station executive director Rachael Ortiz. The community would like to have something like Chuey’s Numero Uno, which died a slow death during the recent economic recession.

“We’re waiting for a restaurant with a bar to go in,” Ortiz said. “Chicano people like to hang out together, and we have always had what we used to call a night club in the Barrio. We’re looking for something like that.”

A new Mariscos el Pulpo moving in with a full-spectrum liquor license could fit that bill.

Ortiz also knows Mercado developer Shea Properties has made overtures to some local craft breweries. One or two of them are considering the invitation, she said, but that may not come to life until the community college district finishes its new campus nearby.

San Diego Community College is scheduled to finish a 50,000-square-foot, 22-classroom continuing education building in early 2015.

In the meantime, Ortiz is happy with the restaurants and shops that have already made their way into the Mercado to help revitalize the community.

Barrio Logan got not just any supermarket, but one tailored for the heavily Latino community. Northgate Gonzalez took a gamble other supermarkets weren’t willing to take, she said. Vons, Albertsons and Ralphs all turned down the chance to open stores there, because they didn’t like the idea of having the bay behind them instead of more homes filled with hungry shoppers.

“Northgate Gonzalez knew the warning signs and the high risks of moving here, and we don’t want to lose them for anything,” she said. “They hired a lot of people from the community and they have all the products we need. That is the Barrio Logan dream, and it is working.” Northgate employs about 125 people from Barrio Logan and its surrounding community, and its smorgasbord of meat, fresh produce, hot deli foods and household goods draws shoppers from the community, the shipyards and beyond.

Ortiz choked up as she described the changes she has seen not only in her community, but her individual friends’ lives. A young father she knows from the neighborhood, who she said seemed lost before, has newfound purpose in the job he got at Northgate.

Kevin McCook, vice president of development at Shea Properties in Aliso Viejo, said the development group took great pains to make the Mercado a place that both people and retailers would want to be. Now that the economy is recovering, he said, the market for the vacant spots is picking up. For a project in a redeveloping area, that’s something to be proud of.

“We’re already starting to see it fill,” said McCook, who oversaw the commercial portion of the mercado. “All the offers, tours and tenant interest has picked up significantly, and we’re starting to get more traction and food. Now people see that everything is actually moving forward as we promised.

“We’re confident it’s going to be a success.”

Shea Properties declined to disclose the current occupancy rate for the two-block project’s 85,000 square feet of retail space, but the Northgate market consumes about 42 percent of it.