Bakersfield Commons retail project looks for traction and Newsweek throws Rep. McCarthy some love

 * ... BAKERSFIELD COMMONS: Had a chance this week to catch up with Daniel Niemann, project manager for the huge Bakersfield Commons mixed retail, commercial and residential development at the corner of Brimhall and Coffee roads. The project will go before the Planning Commission this Thursday (5:30 p.m. in the City Council chamber) and Niemann hopes it will finally gain some traction. The first phase is 600,000 square feet of retail plus another 200,000 square feet of commercial, and he believes our market is ready for some upscale retail. Niemann told me that Dillard's department store has already signed a "letter of interest" (nonbinding of course) and that JCPenny would be the other anchor. With a jobless rate of 17.1 percent, Kern County should be receptive to a project that promises to bring 4,600 construction jobs and 11,000 permanent jobs once fully built out, but there have been issues over the impact on local traffic flow. That said, there's no doubt that parcel will eventually be developed and we could use the jobs. With a little luck, the project could go before the City Council in June. We'll see. (to read a previous post on the project, click here)

 * ... THE NEW NEWT: Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) received some valuable recognition this week when Newsweek magazine ran a two-page spread calling him the "new" Newt Gingrich of the Republican party. (click here to read the entire piece) The story referred to McCarthy as an optimist and one of the GOP's "young guns" who was trying to repeat the 1994 Republican  "Contract with America" engineered by then House Speaker Gingrich. Late last year, the story added that House Minority Leader John Boehner assigned McCarthy the task of helping the GOP overcome the rap of being the "party of no." Though times have changed McCarthy is clearly one of the GOP's rising stars and someone to be watched.


* ... LORI'S KIDS: Reader Lori Drury sent me an email to update me on her children and their accomplishments. Her oldest daughter is Lindsay Rath, a 2002 graduate of UC San Diego who later went into the Navy and medical school. Her travels took her to Philippines, Japan and Thailand. She will move back to San Diego in August to begin a residency in anesthesiology. Her brother, Jason Meeks, went to UC Davis and later UC San Francisco Medical School, also studying anesthesiology. He is awaiting word on where he will do his internship. Another daughter is Christa Kenney, a nurse who graduated from Cal State Bakersfield who is  now working in the neonatal intensive care unit at Memorial Hospital. Finally, there is a younger daughter who is attending high school and wants to be a registered dietitian. As Lori said: "I guess we could start my own hospital if I had any more kids!"

 * ... LOU ELLA'S: Got a nice note from Bitsy Ming sharing her recollections of the old Lou Ella's children's store on Baker Street. Bitsy (her husband is Garrett Ming of Jim Burke Lincoln Mercury) spent countless hours at Lou Ella's as a child, playing with owner Brenda and Armanda's dogs. "My best friend Sara Mettler (Nilson) and I often went with our mothers and purchased identical outfits so we looked like Cindy Brady or my preference, Buffy of Family Affair. Our Cotillion clothes were purchased at Lou Ella's complete with gloves and stockings. Much later, after we had the misfortune of outgrowing Lou Ella's, we were back purchasing baby shower gifts and then even better our own children's clothing and blankets. It was hard believing it was our children's turn to lay with Armanda and Brenda's dogs as well as their toys while we completed our purchases."

 * ... TONY SPOTTED: NASCAR driver Tony Stewart was spotted last Thursday night dining at the Petroleum Club and apparently had great things to say about the food and service. No word on what brought him to town.

 * ... COLLEGE BOUND: Anna Keathley, a Bakersfield High senior and chair of the Assisteens, will be attending Loyola Marymount University in the Fall. Thanks to her mother, Marianne Keathley, for sharing the good news.

 * ... BAKERSFIELDISMS: You know you're from Bakersfield when "you remember the two times in the last 25 years that it snowed and you remember everything you did that day."

Bakersfield Commons: is the huge development at Coffee and Brimhall about to become reality?

How many times have you passed that huge swath of undeveloped land at Coffee and Brimhall roads and thought: why hasn't this ever been developed? Well, got an update on the long-stalled project there, called the Bakersfield Commons, when project rep Daniel Niemann briefed the downtown Rotary club. The owners, World Oil, have ambitious plans for a huge retail, office park and residential development that - at least on paper and in PowerPoint - looks upscale and a definite plus for our community. Niemann is talking anchors like Dillard's, Macy's, JC Pennys and boutique retailers all surrounding lush greenery, pedestrian malls and housed on 255 acres. He says the closest thing to it is Victoria Gardens in Rancho Cucamonga, which I haven't seen. The project  has been stalled in the city over traffic impact issues but Niemann claims this is classic infill - hard to argue with that given its location - and that he has even received the blessings of the Sierra Club.

 The project is planned over 20 years and the first phase includes  800,000 square feet of retail and 200,000 square feet of office space. Eventually they claim there will be movie theaters, modern offices, parks, possibly a police substation and GET bus transit center and lastly - 80 single-family homes built in the first, second and third phases of the project. If you want to tour its website, check it out here. I've been in town long enough to remember when there were plans for a water slide park there, and I've always been puzzled why this prime acreage has not been developed. And there's always the question why anyone - any developer - would want to move forward in this lousy economic environment when capital is so hard to come by and retailers are cutting back, not expanding. My guess? The City Council will give its blessing. We'll have to wait and see exactly what develops over the next couple decades. Niemann said with City Council approval, they'll be moving dirt within the year.