Will Bollinger Crossings Get A Daycare?

SAN RAMON, CA — A daycare operator is looking to take over a long-vacant restaurant unit in the Bollinger Crossings shopping center.

Primrose Schools, which already has franchise locations in Pleasanton and Livermore, is seeking to open its third Tri-Valley location in San Ramon. The company has long sought to find a San Ramon location, but options have been very limited, said Donna Prada, Primrose Schools director of site acquisition, during the Sept. 15 San Ramon Planning Commission meeting.

Meanwhile, Bollinger Crossings has been unable to fill the restaurant unit at 18080 San Ramon Valley Blvd. since 2017, said City Yee, a senior planner for the city.

Primrose Schools is seeking to create a 12,390-square-foot daycare in its place, which calls for the removal of 22 parking spots to fit a play area. Building plans dictate the facility could accommodate 164 students per day, weekdays from 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and could bring an estimated 750 additional drivers into the shopping center each day.

The shopping center has sufficient parking and should not be a problem for neighbor tenants, which include restaurant Clementine's, Yee said. Neighbor tenants have been notified of the proposal but have not submitted comments.

Planning commissioners would also have to consider granting a non-retail land use permit for the site, since it is currently reserved for retail locations.

The proposal is a difficult one for the commission, said Chair Eric Wallis, exacerbated by the fact that the pandemic has discouraged businesses from opening up retail locations.

"Apparently [Bollinger Crossings is] losing most of the tenants who are in the building anyway," he said. "Maybe it's time to rethink that whole shopping center in terms of a redevelopment plan."

Watch commissioners discuss the proposal here.