Major Warehouse Renovation Planned

American Stores Inc., parent company of the Lucky supermarket and Sav-On Drugs chains, will soon begin a $50-million project to renovate a former Ralphs-Food 4 Less supermarket warehouse on Harbor Boulevard, a project that city officials said could create hundreds of new jobs.

City Council members approved the project this week. “This is going to be a significant boost to the work force,” Mayor David M. Cheverton said. “It’s a great project for this city. . . . I can’t wait to see it finished.”

City officials said the development will fill a large void in La Habra, which has a number of vacant commercial properties.

The company will remodel 570,000 square feet of the existing warehouse, demolish 220,000 square feet of it and construct a 96,000-square-foot addition, spokeswoman Judy Decker said.

American Stores officials said the project will provide nearly 500 jobs in La Habra. When the new facility opens in about a year, it will consolidate operations that are now in Fullerton, Anaheim, Ontario and Fontana, Decker said.

Details of the closures of those facilities have yet to be worked out, she said.

Two other warehouses in Orange County--Buena Park and Irvine--will remain open, she said.

The La Habra warehouse will be used to store over-the-counter drugs, liquor, wine, tobacco products, beauty aids and general merchandise, she said. It will serve all the company’s food and drug stores in California, Nevada and Arizona.

The company, which owns the property at 777 to 999 S. Harbor Blvd., will install sidewalks and landscaping along the boulevard and Lambert Road, and will allow trucks to enter the property only from Harbor.