retail

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The community is invited to a groundbreaking ceremony of the new Bijou Marketplace project in South Lake Tahoe on Monday, August 7 at 2:00 p.m.

Halferty Development purchased the old Knight's Inn and surrounding properties for $3.1M on May 9 and had plans to bring in a Whole Foods 365 and other tenants that might include a bank, salon and other retail or restaurants.

This new center was formerly known as the Bijou Park Creek Watershed Management Project and The Knights Inn and Southwest Corner.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Locals and visitors can now enjoy the signature coffee, smoothies, and baked goods of Keys Cafe at both ends of the bike trail with the addition of a satellite location in Camp Richardson's Coffee & Confectionery shop located on Highway 89.

We really saw this as a great opportunity and a synergy between our two businesses,” said Jeremy Gilpin, co-owner of the Tahoe Keys Café. “With such diverse menus we were able to come together and not cross, but be an added benefit to the resort.”

I took a couple of field trips this month related to learning more about cannabis and how it may affect our city if retail, commercial grows, testing, and edible production are implemented. I learned a lot and will share some of the highlights with you.

The first trip was to Breckenridge, a visit I piggybacked on top of a wedding I attended in Vail. I met with their Mayor, City Manager (formerly the police chief) and the assistant city manager. We met for two hours and our talk was primarily centered on their experiences with the legalization of cannabis in Breckenridge.

The sale of "The Chateau at the Village" in South Lake Tahoe is complete and the eight acres of land and entitlements are now owned by Tahoe Chateau Land Holding, LLC, a Chinese-American investment group.

The holding company, owned by Kawana Holdings, will own "air rights" above the existing retail area, related parking and the garage structure, the former convention center pad. The seller, Owens Realty Mortgage Inc., keeps the existing retail buildings and improvements that are home to McP's, Dough and various shops.

Going away is the Knight's Inn, and in its place will be Bijou Market Place. Halferty Development today announced the name of their South Lake Tahoe project that was formerly known as Bijou Park Creek Watershed Management Southwest Corner Project.

During Thursday's Planning Commission meeting, the commissioners unanimously adopted the resolution that certified the project's Initial Study, Mitigated Negative Declaration, Initial Environmental Checklist and Mitigated Finding of no significant affect. They also approved the permits so now Halferty Development can move forward.

This past city council meeting all 5 council members agreed to have staff present us a ballot measure that would increase the city sales tax by 1/2%. This came after a survey was completed and results were presented by the outside independent company contracted by the city. The results indicated that almost 68% of the survey respondents supported the increase as long as the funds would be dedicated by law to roads.

What is officially known as the Bijou Park Creek Watershed Restoration Project, or unofficially the Knight's Inn Project, will be brought before the South Lake Tahoe City Council to be approved during a special meeting on Tuesday, March 14 at 4:00 p.m.

The three phase, 850-acre project will be both an environmental and economic development project, something the City has been working on for several years.

With the passage of Proposition 64 in November, South Lake Tahoe and other cities around the state are taking a look at their codes and regulations to be consistent with requirements that came with the legalization of marijuana for personal use. Californians voted 57.13 percent in favor of the proposition. On a local level, the vote was very close in El Dorado County with 50.07 percent of the voters against the legalization of marijuana.

During their meeting Tuesday, the Douglas County School District Board of Trustees turned down a request by the buyer of Kingsbury Middle School (KMS) for almost $100,000 to be spent on a environmental impact study of the planned development of the South Shore property.

South Lake Tahoe, Calif. - I could not be more honored and excited to represent this community as your Mayor. Having served on City Council for two years, I have learned that there are deeply passionate and extremely knowledgeable citizens and fellow council members who care immensely about our community and the decisions made by our City.

It's a "win-win" situation for South Lake Tahoe area businesses, shoppers and diners starting November 26 when the Tahoe Chamber launches their GO Local & Win! campaign. Those enjoying local businesses are rewarded for shopping and dining locally and will earn credit for every $25 spent and have a chance to win hundreds of dollars in cash and gifts.

Business owners and operators also win during the "GO Local & Win" campaign as they have an opportunity to promote and expand their base of customers or clientele.

The City of South Lake Tahoe imposed a single use, plastic bag ban for grocery stores in the city limits in October of 2013, and now the rest of the state will do the same.

During Tuesday's election, Californians voted to keep a state ban on single use plastic bags, but decided against a measure requiring paper bag fees to go toward environmental causes.

Many are ready for this election to be over the national level with the negativity surrounding the campaigns. On a local level there are several choices before voters.

If you have not already submitted your ballots, find your polling place here:

California
Nevada

If you live in the South Lake Tahoe City limits, you are able to vote for two of ten candidates for City Council (in alphabetical order):

Brooke Laine
Dan McLaughlin
Jason Collin
JoAnn Conner

It is an exciting time to live on the South Shore – during a critical point in our region’s evolution and potential. It is time to set our course: moving away from bickering and blaming, exclusionary special interests and single-industry dominance to consensus-building and proactively choosing progress. Whether we live in Nevada or California, everyone benefits from uniting towards a sustainable vision for the South Shore.

The Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce (Tahoe Chamber) will host the GO Local Workshop for Retailers on Thursday, November 3, from 8:00 a.m.-9:30 a.m., at Tahoe Mountain Lab, 3079 Harrison Avenue in South Lake Tahoe. The event will feature an overview of the Tahoe Chamber’s GO Local business campaign, the benefits of the campaign, and an audience brainstorming session.

The Tahoe Chamber’s goal of this workshop is to engage local retailers with the GO Local campaign.

With winter just around the corner, Harrah's and Harvey's are starting to gear up their staffing needs. They will be holding a job fair on Thursday, Oct. 13, from noon to 4:00 p.m.

They are looking for fun, friendly people to join the team in several areas and are looking for cooks, kitchen stewards, beverage servers, hotel front desk, security officers, food servers, wardrobe clerk, retail clerk and baristas to name a few. .

The hiring event takes place at Harvey's bus reception lobby, located adjacent to the employment office at the rear/southwest entrance of the hotel.

Owens Realty Mortgage has reported that Tahoe Stateline Venture, LLC, has entered into a purchase agreement with Jianping Pan, Kawana Holdings LLC to sell some of their Chateau at the Village for $42.5 million.

The City of South Lake Tahoe is still trying to work out a deal with the Halferty Development Company, a $4 million sale of the developable portions of the lots known as the "Knights Inn Properties."

During Tuesday's City Council meeting a purchase agreement was scheduled to be voted on, but SLT City Manager Nancy Kerry had to pull it off the agenda.

"We are still working on it," Kerry told South Tahoe Now. "We are still negotiating and have some issues to work out."

Pier 1 is out of their location in South Lake Tahoe, and Goodwill Industries is heading in now that escrow has closed on the building at 1069 Emerald Bay Road. Goodwill will be celebrating the opening their 27th Northern Nevada/Sacramento area location with a four-day grand opening starting July 21 at 8:00 a.m.

Karen McClaflin, the Chief Development Officer for Goodwill Sacramento Valley & Northern Nevada, told South Tahoe Now that that the company has been actively engaged for the past seven years looking for a store and community training center in the Tahoe Basin.

A 3.43 acre piece of land once owned by Randy Lane's Falcon Capital LLC may soon have a 22-unit condominium project built on it. The property (made up from two parcels) is underneath the gondola, adjacent to the Van Sickle Bi-State Park near the state line in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. The listed owner of the property is now Lucky Look LLC.

A very energetic and outgoing volunteer team from Vail Resort’s Retail Group joined the Bread & Broth volunteers to donate their time to serve the April 11 evening dinner at St. Theresa Grace Hall. With funds provided by the Vail EpicPromise Grant program, Heavenly Mountain Resort sponsored the Monday meal and had Retail Group Store Managers Ryan Olm, Heather Searcy, Amy Grannick, Josh Bastille and Marcie Canale team up and participate in the evening’s dinner event.

Bread & Broth would like to thank Kirkwood Mountain Resort for their ongoing support of our Monday evening meal program at St. Theresa Church Grace Hall. Kirkwood’s “Adopt a Day” sponsorship provided the funds for the filling and nutritious meal prepared by B&B’s talented volunteer cooks at B&B’s March dinner. That evening, the dinner guests enjoyed spaghetti with meatballs dinner that was served with sauté asparagus, green salad, fruit salad, garlic bread & assorted desserts.

On Thursday, the California Tahoe Conservancy Board awarded more than $7 million for seven watershed restoration and forest health projects around the lake. Thirteen different applicants submitted 32 grant requests totaling $30 million, but with just $13,950,000 to give out, it was a very competitive process.

The money comes from Proposition 1, the $7.545 billion water bond approved overwhelmingly by California voters in November 2014. It was divided around the state to agencies like the Conservancy for water supply infrastructure projects.

The Knights Inn could be purchased by the City of South Lake Tahoe for $6 million should a grant be awarded them by the California Tahoe Conservancy. If that happens, the City would purchase, and then demolish, the motel located on Highway 50 near Ski Run Boulevard to make way for a new environmental and retail project.

There is grant money available through the CTC which the City will apply for. The funds come from the state's Proposition 1 Water Bond which was approved by voters in 2014 to authorize $7.545 billion in general obligation bonds for water projects.