Walmart Neighborhood Market Might Be Coming to San Ramon

The superstore giant Walmart is planning to come to San Ramon. But they won't be building one of their megastores. Instead, they want to sell groceries.

The company is seeking construction bids to build a Walmart Neighborhood Market in the Country Club Village Shopping Center off Alcosta in South San Ramon. 

There are 167 Walmart Neighborhood Markets in the country. Neighborhood Markets are full-service grocery stores, selling everything one would find in a regular grocery store, according to the Walmart website. 

The San Ramon store is proposed for an existing 55,000-square-foot vacant space in the Country Club Village Shopping Center.

San Ramon city staff learned of the Walmart's interest in building the grocery store through the Dodge Project Center website, which connects construction companies with development projects. Walmart is expected to close the bidding process on Feb. 23, according to the call for bids.

"They are looking to end the bidding by the end of the month and open by the end of the year," said Marc Fontes, San Ramon's economic development director.

If built, the grocery store would be an anchor store for the Country Club Village Shopping Center, a San Ramon redevelopment project. The city has been unable to secure an anchor tenant for many years.

In 2006, Ralph’s grocery store closed after its parent company, Kroger, decided to close all of its Northern California locations.

An independent Asian grocery store opened for a short time, but closed two years ago.

"Since then no other grocery store has expressed any interest in this location, and the neighborhood has been without a local grocery store for several years," the city's press release said.

The neighborhood market would have to to meet all city requirements and the shopping center’s own rules and regulations, which includes no overnight parking and trash cleanup.