Groceteria.com

Folks: The former Safeway in the Irvington section of Fremont reopened as a 99 Cent Only Store last Thursday (March 25). Although I've lived nearby for almost 25 years now, this was the first time I've actually gone into the building.

The Marina style building has not been a Safeway for any of those 25 years--I suspect that Safeway moved up the street in the late 70's or very early 80's as part of the first wave of the Irvington redevelopment. Even the "new" Safeway is rather cramped, but benefits somewhat by its "Lifestyle" remodel a few years ago. For those of you familiar with Fremont, this Safeway is in the "Five Corners" area of Irvington.

The Marina building was previously a Smart & Final--which has moved into an old Alpha Beta location further to the north. Before the Smart & Final, I think a Liquor Barn occupied the site.

Since I've never been in the building until now, I don't know when the various changes came about. The building was pretty much gutted for the conversion to the 99 Cent Only store--new floors, new lighting, new shelving, etc. Somewhere along the line, the two "side" entrances were plastered over; the main entrance is now in the center and faces foward. Yet a couple of reminders of the old Safeway survive--two large blank circles on either side of the front look like they once held the old, round, Safeway logo. The exterior still retains most of its Marina styling.

While I was parking, I saw a workman working on what looked to be an original exterior light fixture on one of the side walls--an opaque metal shade over a simple light bulb. By the time I got out of the store, the fixture was gone, and a circular cap covered the electrical box. In the 25 years I've been passing by the store, I don't think I ever saw this light working. As of today, one of these (non-working) fixtures still survives. I think some more of them have been sacrificed to provide space (and power) for some of the new 99 Cent Only signage.

A sign in the current Safeway reads "Serving Fremont since 1957". I'm not sure if that is a reference to the Marina store down the street, or other Fremont locations.

The Marina building is located on the corner of Fremont Blvd and Blacow Road.

Gunter

Looking at the building in Google Street View, the exterior looks pretty original.

Google Street View's images from Fremont Blvd show the building active as "Smart & Final", but if you look from Blascow Rd, you'll see it as an empty building.

Thanks, Tesg!

Looking at the Google images, as well as Map Quest, I see that the 99 Cent Only remodel extensively changed the front windows. The new windows are dark blue framed--and as mentioned before, the entry doors are in the center facing forward. The S&F era doors also faced foward, but were off to the left side. So the plastering over of the original Marina entrances probably happened a long time ago.

A few other changes for the 99 Cent remodel: The parking lot lights have been updated--new poles and fixtures (Square poles, shoebox fixtures, MH lighting). But the Cobra Head Mercury fixtures hanging on davit arms off of the building itself remain (the missing glass being replaced on one of them). To me, those davits don't look original to the building. And, as I alluded to in my original post, most of the wall mounted shaded fixtures are gone--but can be seen in the Google images on the Blacow Road side of the building.

The sign pole remains in the parking lot, of course updated to read 99 Cent Only, and has been painted dark blue. Could this pole date back to the Safeway days (with an old style round Safeway logo at the top)?

Should have included the address for the folks who want to look this location up on Google ...

99 Cent Only Store--Fremont
41989 Fremont Blvd.
Fremont, CA 94538

Gunter