I received reports that the Sports Chalet store in Brea, California seemed to have a special positive standing in the community.  Here are some empirical indicators:

• Customers arriving at the checkout during the liquidation sales made comments to the staff that they did not like any other sporting good store.  Some were close to crying.
• The manager of the liquidation company made the statement that in over 10 years of offering liquidation sales, he had never seen a store like this one where he could run the 10% off sale for so long.
• Former employees came back to work the liquidation sales because most enjoyed the store team of workers and past memories.
• Customers were seen buying sporting good items for their children for future years, not just because they were on sale but also because this store has a much better selection.

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Next is my letter to REI:

I would like to make a suggestion.  As you know Vestis has closed all Sports Chalet stores.   I recommend that you take a good close look at the Sports Chalet located at 2500 E Imperial Hwy #150, Brea, CA 92821.  Here are the reasons you should make this consideration.

Beyond the normal clothing and sport gear sales this location had the following specialized services:

• Tennis racket restringing.
• Bicycle repair and tune up.
• Ski and snowboard rentals
• Scuba certification.  A large separate pool is in a separate section of this building.

Another factor is that this store had been in operation over 25 years.  The local community had come to rely and know that “their” sporting good gear and services were offered here.

Another factor is that most of the current store staff has a store loyalty.  Many former workers have come back to once again work during the take down of this Sports Chalet.  I expect you will easily find these people willing to work for REI.  There is also a lot of customer loyalty.

Aside:  REI has a web page called Real Estate Development where they encourage real estate brokers to submit store location proposals.

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Used REI’s template to respond:

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Going over your requirements, I am not qualified to answer these questions with any authority or certainty but here it goes anyway:

23.5K 1-level building
This is a two level store.  The second level does not start until you walk further back to where shoe storage and rentals begin.

25K 2-level building, plus approximately 1,800 sq. ft. (30′ x 60′) cutout at second level for opening/main stair
At least 38,000 square feet.  I have heard square footage totals as high as 43,000 square feet.
This store does have stairs to the second floor retail section.  The second floor begins well back from the front of the store.

17′ minimum clearance to underside of structure at 1st level.
I am not sure what you want here but a store staff member said “YES”.

15′ minimum clearance to underside of structure at all 2nd levels
I measured 8 feet 9 inches from first floor to drop ceiling where there is a second floor protrusion out into the ground floor.   This protrusion was measured about 13 feet.  The second floor extends back 41 feet from the edge of the second floor hand rail along the wall parallel to the front of the store.  There is less second floor space along the west protrusion over the ground floor.

Freestanding or attached
Attached in that this store is part of a long string of joined stores.  If you were to look across the street a similar store arrangement, almost a mirror image.  The stores on both sides of the street span about .45 miles when measured as a straight line down imperial Highway.

Strong retail in proximity of site.
On both sides of the Imperial Highway are stores, shops and restaurants.  I will only mention stores that I think are large in size.

Home Depot
Trader Joes,
Albertson’s
Walmart
Dress Barn
Babies”R”Us
Staples
Petco
PetSmart
Michaels
Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
Nordstrom Rack

Median household income $50K and above.
There is a very high end master planned community that offers a demographic analysis for the immediate area.  This La Floresta development which is less than one mile away from this Sports Chalet location.  My separate Internet analysis follows:
Brea Household Income     $82,055
Brea Family Median Income    $97,045
Placentia Household Income    $75,693
Placentia Family Median Income   $84,659
Yorba Linda Median Income     $121,075

100K or more households within a 15 mile radius of site.
Look at La Floresta development which is a multigenerational master planned community with stores and shops. This is a very high end development.  Each housing unit costs half a million to one million to buy.  They will have 1,100 units and expect to house 4,000 people.  This development is .88 miles east of this property.  Very high end stores are in this complex.
Brea Population: 41,394
Brea Daytime population: 100,000
Placentia Population: 50,533 during the 2010 census.
Yorba Linda, west section, which falls within the 15 mile radius is hard to calculate.  These are high end land plots and thus population density is less than Brea or Placentia.
Close to Sports Chalet site are large and small businesses, some of which are multi story and add to the daytime total of potential customers.

   Abundant parking for exclusive use: 5/1000
Because this store location is somewhat in the middle of a long string of stores customers can park anywhere along the parking strip between the stores and Highway 90.
My calculations show about 137 parking spaces in front of this store location.
The store location to the east and next to Sports Chalet is vacant and is being used by Bank of America for their ATM.  I am including those spaces.
There are no walls or fences so customers can easily park well beyond the spaces in front of the store.  There is no exclusive use parking stalls.

   Excellent visibility, directly off main arterials.
This location is right in front of Imperial Highway, 90, a heavily traveled road.
This road often times connects the 91 freeway and the 57 freeway when either roadway is hammered and not moving well.
There is an alternative roadway about .8 miles east of this store called Carbon Canyon Road, 142 hwy.  It gets significant traffic during rush hours because it services, more directly, the Chino and Chino Hills area.  When the 57 or 91 freeways stop, this is one pressure relief valve to get into the inland empire.
A lot of traffic comes up Kraemer from Placentia.  This street is just to the east of the store location.

Thank you for considering this proposal.

 

Updated:  3-6-19 due to URL error.   https://www.rei.com/about-rei/real-estate-development.  403 Forbidden.  I had to reenter the URL address on a separate line for the link to work.