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Costco, HomeGoods coming to Merced as other businesses expand across city

Several new developments are under construction in Merced — and the city says more are coming.

“We’re going to need, actually, more commercial land to take care of the demand that we’re going to have within our population,” said Merced Deputy City Manager Frank Quintero.

Quintero says since he moved here 36 years ago, Merced’s population has doubled, and he expects it to surpass 100,000 people by next year.

“A lot of that is attributed to UC Merced and Merced College,” he said.

Campus Parkway leads towards UC Merced, and Quintero says that’s why bringing in more business along it is ideal.

Already, new residences are being built near the parkway and Coffee St., and soon several businesses will be built at the nearby Gateway Marketplace.

Among them, Costco will relocate to the complex from its current location in the central-western part of the city.

“Folks have often expressed wanting to see a newer facility. This facility has been around since 1995,” said Francisco Mendoza, the Economic Development Administrator for the City of Merced.

Ross, Burlington, and Five Below will be adding second Merced stores to the complex, which will also be the home of the city’s first TJ Maxx and Homegoods locations.

The new development means continued growth for Merced.

Just a few years ago, an abandoned Sears was refurbished into the Shoppes at Merced.

“That has really caused interest to spike up in Merced. That was sort of the catalyst for larger developers to start looking at Merced again,” said Quintero.

City leaders are still discussing what to do with the old Costco facility.

Meanwhile, Quintero says they’re already working on bringing even more new businesses to the city.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/economy/costco-homegoods-coming-to-merced-as-other-businesses-expand-across-city/ar-AA2e7nDC?ocid=BingNewsSerp

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Renaissance Faire sees Hanford transform into Hanfordshire for a weekend

For the weekend of Oct. 3, Civic Center Park was transformed into Hanfordshire, a town straight out of medieval times. Cloth tents, generously draped with patterned fabric, dotted the park, which was packed with attendees in period and fantasy costumes.

Organized by the Hanford Recreation and Community Services Department, the 47th annual Renaissance Faire hosted craftspeople, performers and food vendors.

Art vendors, who sold everything from reiki energy healing, tarot readings, broadswords, ceramics and corsets, had their own booths, each decked out in medieval and fantasy decorations.

Emma Sawoniewicz has been planning to go to Hanford’s Renaissance Faire for the last month.

“I really like fantasy and medieval,” Emma said. “I really wanted to find some decorations for my room and also to meet new people and see vendors.”

Emma and her mom, Marta, were dressed up in period costume that Emma picked out. Emma was wearing a purple ballgown dress with a lace-up bodice, while her mom wore a Celtic-inspired green dress.

On the first day of Hanford’s Renaissance Faire, Emma woke at at 6 a.m. to get ready, and Marta drove them all the way from their home in Los Angeles.

So far, Emma’s enjoyed her first Renaissance fair in the U.S., but now, she’s on the hunt to buy a dagger.

“I saw the people fighting each other,” Emma said. “It’s really interesting.”

For those wanna-be medieval knights, attendees could challenge their friends (or enemies, one assumes) to armored combat. In a wooden pen, people wore padded vests with a knight’s helmet, whacking each other with foam swords.

And roaming the grounds, bards treated attendees to musical compositions, singing and playing both the accordion and tambourine.

Lydia Fortner is a performer with Banat Tanjora, a collective which portrays 16th-century Egyptian dancers and musicians, as well as Tahtib, stick fighting martial art and performance art.

“You can see pictures of it on the walls of the pyramids. So a lot of this stuff dates back farther than has been recorded,” Fortner said.

Fortner has loved ancient Egypt since she was a kid, and that passion led her to learn, and eventually teach, belly dance.

She’s no stranger to Renaissance faires, which she’s been coming to since the mid-’90s. Fortner said that in the last 30 years, Renaissance faire culture has shifted from strict historical reproduction to casual imaginative play.

“They kind of have loosened up the parameters of, like, you used to have to have speak in an accent. They used to have classes you had to take,” Fortner said.

She thinks the rise of cosplay shifted attendees’ expectations for renaissance faires.

“It’s much more like ‘Oh, well we’re just dressing up and having fun’,” Fortner said. “We’re having fun and playing because grownups can play too.”

Banat Tanjora still does historical education, with traditional Turkish coffee tasting presentations and historic dance and music performances.

But Fortner is just one of the many performers at Hanford’s Renaissance Faire.

Attendees were strolling through Civic Park when voice rung out, “God save the Queen! God save the King!”

Then, a procession of court performers emerged, each dressed in resplendent historical costumes — think Anne Boleyn headdresses, full skirts with layers of petticoats and collar ruffs.

Some performers dressed as guards raised their medieval polearms and shouted, “Huzzah!,” as they all marched to the Courthouse steps.

That’s part of what makes Renaissance faires unique: how many different kinds of experiences they offer. Some people like the interactive theater element; other people like shopping the handcrafted wares made by local artists.

Gary Kyhn is a vendor, selling his handcrafted wire-wrapped stone necklaces and hammered copper bracelets. One pendant features a stone wrapped in copper wiring that he twisted into the shape of a tree.

He started his business, One of a Kyhn, after he got into stone cutting during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He loves the process of discovery that stone cutting offers: he puts stones that are millions of years old in his table saw and splits them in half, revealing the true treasure within.

“And I’m the first one to ever lay eyes on them,” Kyhn said.

Kyhn is 71 and has been selling his work fulltime since he retired from the air conditioning business last September.

He’s found that handcrafted art, like his own work, is a big hit at Renaissance festivals.

“It’s where people really seem to appreciate my stuff,” he said.

Renaissance faire attendees are also a special type of customer, he’s discovered.

“We hardly ever see anybody upset with each other. It’s just a community that really seems to get along,” Kyhn said.

https://hanfordsentinel.com/entertainment/renaissance-faire-sees-hanford-transform-into-hanfordshire-for-a-weekend/article_ae744a5d-2c58-478b-bc19-84aea1e5df09.html#1

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Marketplace at Selma Moving Forward with 540,000 Square Feet of Retail Development

The Marketplace at Selma, a major commercial development planned for northwest Selma near Floral Avenue, DeWolf Avenue and Highway 99, is moving forward with plans for approximately 540,000 square feet of retail development across 53 acres.

Current plans include an approximately 50,000-square-foot grocer, up to 30,000 square feet of restaurant space and an approximately 140,000-square-foot national retailer. The development is also planned to include a mix of stores offering hobby and craft supplies, hardware, apparel, home goods and other everyday shopping options.

The project is being developed by Tutelian & Co. in partnership with Fahrney Automotive Group, whose investment reflects a long-standing commitment to the Selma community and its continued economic growth. Tutelian & Co. is in active negotiations with several national anchor and junior anchor retailers and is moving the project through final site planning, architectural design, construction budgeting and scheduling.

The Selma City Council has supported the project and its continued advancement over the past several years.

https://www.cityofselma.com/news_detail_T5_R413.php

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Hard Rock Casino Tejon green-lights phase 2

Hard Rock Casino Tejon is going vertical.

Not even a year after the casino’s initial phase opened between Interstate 5 and Highway 99 in Mettler, construction is planned to begin next month on an ambitious second phase that will include an 11-story, 400-room hotel.

Also planned for the casino’s second phase is a convention center and events venue previously reported to contain 2,800 seats, along with new food and beverage options, resort amenities and expanded gaming.

To kick off the facility’s extension, Davie, Fla.-based Hard Rock International, working in partnership with the local Tejon Indian Tribe, has scheduled an October groundbreaking expected to attract elected officials, community leaders, project partners and news reporters.

The plan to proceed with the casino’s second phase was first reported Saturday by independent information service 500Nations.com.

Word that the casino is expanding so soon after its opening appears to signal the roughly 150,000-square-foot casino has met or exceeded financial performance expectations.

Two years ago, Hard Rock said phase two would open in summer 2027. But in October the company told The Californian it had no firm opening date for the start of the second phase.

Representatives of Hard Rock declined Wednesday to comment on news of the groundbreaking. The Tejon Indian Tribe did not respond to a request for comment.

No figures demonstrating the casino’s performance have been made available publicly, but visitors say the casino seems to doing well, with crowds of visitors enjoying themselves around the clock.

The organization has engaged with the local community, donating to charitable causes and sponsoring blood drives and motorsports. The casino serves as title sponsor for the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tejon Concert Series at the Budweiser Pavilion at this year’s Kern County Fair, which it also helps support as a general sponsor.

There’s little question Hard Rock has the financial wherewithal to move forward with construction. The company boasts investment-grade ratings from S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings.

Located about a half an hour’s drive from downtown Bakersfield, the casino has 2,100 slot machines, more than 60 table games and a variety of dining options.

https://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/articles/hard-rock-casino-tejon-green-035900099.html