Could the Vacant Ralphs Soon Have a New Tenant?

It’s been , and the building remains vacant. However, the city says it’s doing the best it can to change that.

“It’s really just a lot of phone calls and efforts to try to get [businesses] to take a look at that site,” said Community Development Director Greg Gubman.

According to a property spec sheet provided by the city, the 40,755 square foot building at Grand Avenue and Diamond Bar Boulevard has 60,000 vehicles pass by daily, and is a five minute drive from 22,463 residents. A business that would go in there would pay no city utility taxes, no city user fees, no city impact fees, and a low city business license fee.

Gubman says the city is reaching out to grocery stores that could easily set up shop inside the building.

“We’ve approached Trader Joe’s and Sprouts directly,” he said. “We’ve contacted over 20 grocery retailers and we’ve focused on ones that the community wants to see there.”

There has been some interest in the site, but Gubman can’t elaborate at this point.

“We’re really working grocers, asking them to take a look,” he said. “Some have passed on the site, some have done due diligence and passed, and a couple of opportunities are still in the works, but we’re not allowed to discuss them.” 

The store closed last summer for multiple reasons, according to spokesperson Kendral Royel, including “inadequate sales performance.” In a , Diamond Bar Ranch Center manager Andy Deng was skeptical of a business moving into the empty space quickly.

“A big box space is hard to rent out in Diamond Bar,” he said.