LAKEPORT, Calif. — Three years after Lakeport’s Kmart closed, the building that once housed the retail giant is poised to get new life and new tenants.

At its last meeting of 2022 on Dec. 14, the Lakeport Planning Commission approved Upward Architects’ application for a use permit and an architectural and design review for a new commercial project at the building, located at 2019 S. Main St.

The commission’s approval will allow Upward Architects to renovate and subdivide the 90,852-square-foot building into three lease spaces, two of which will be occupied by Marshalls and Tractor Supply Co.

Upward Architects, a Tempe, Arizona-based commercial architecture firm, submitted the project’s land use application in September.

The owner of the 8.59-acre property is Ken Simons of Simons Real Estate Group Inc. in Moorpark, California, the land use application showed.

During the Dec. 14 meeting, City Manager Kevin Ingram noted that for the city, the project is “the biggest thing we’ve got going.”

Kmart closed the store at the end of 2019 after operating it there since the early 1990s and despite the fact that it was reported to be one of the struggling company’s top 25 performing stores in the country.

The store had been a major sales tax generator for the city of Lakeport. Since its closure the city has worked to fill the void.

The city has been helped by The Retail Coach, a company it had hired in July 2019 to help recruit retailers, before word of the Kmart closure became public.

At the Nov. 1 Lakeport City Council meeting, during which the council extended the contract with The Retail Coach, it received an update on the company’s efforts, which included a report on plans for the former Kmart building.

Austin Farmer of The Retail Coach told the council at that meeting that they had received two letters of intent from retailers for the redevelopment of the Kmart property.

Farmer didn’t identify the two retailers at that point, but at the Planning Commission meeting and in the application from Upward Architects, it was confirmed that Marshalls and Tractor Supply Co. are the retailers.

Marshalls is a department store which has offerings including clothing, shoes, cosmetics, accessories, gifts and home décor.

Tractor Supply Co. offers equipment, tools, food for pets and livestock, and housewares. This will be Lake County’s second Tractor Supply.

The other is located in Clearlake in the Walmart shopping center on Dam Road, in a building that formerly was the location for Ray’s Food Place, which closed in late 2016. That building was renovated and now, in addition to Tractor Supply, it houses Big 5 and a new Department of Motor Vehicles office.

Commission gets report on project, votes to support it

During the Planning Commission’s half-hour meeting on Dec. 14, Chairman Mark Mitchell recused himself from the discussion and the vote because he is involved in the project.

City Associate Planner Victor Fernandez explained that the project application calls for Tractor Supply Co. to occupy the southern portion of the building, which consists of 30,981 square feet.

In addition to the indoor section of the building, Tractor Supply also will have outdoor sales of large equipment and outdoor sidewalk sales.

The project includes expansion of the 21,977-square-foot outdoor fenced area — which had been Kmart’s outdoor garden section — for Tractor Supply’s use.

The plans also call for increasing the building’s height from 29 feet to 32 feet. Fernandez said the maximum height within the city’s C-2 commercial zoning is 35 feet.

Fernandez said it’s anticipated that Marshalls will occupy the northern portion of the building, which is about 24,000 square feet.

The 36,005 square foot middle section of the building will be for a future tenant which is unknown at this time, Fernandez said.

Lakeport planning staff analyzed the project and determined that it’s compliant with the city’s general plan and that it’s exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, under a section which allows improvements to existing facilities, Fernandez said.

The staff report noted that the existing site layout would remain “mostly unchanged” except for the expansion of Tractor Supply’s fenced outdoor area and some minor parking space modifications to allow for semi truck access.

Fernandez said the project’s site plan will eliminate a small amount of parking due to those modifications.

However, he reviewed the parking requirements under the city’s most restrictive guidelines that require one space for 250 square feet of building space.

That would equal 364 parking spaces for the entire project and the three leased spaces. Even with the loss of some parking spaces, Fernandez said the project would have more than enough parking, with 471 total parking stalls.

During public comment, Rick Sander, an architect with Upward Architects and senior project manager, said the only “asterisk” on the project as proposed is that there are unknowns about the middle section of the store that doesn’t yet have a tenant.

Sander said it’s possible that center space could be divided, but it’s only a discussion at this point and it’s unknown as to what stores might go in there. Once they know, they will return to talk to the city.

Fernandez said such a modification to divide the building’s center section would consist of interior remodeling and wouldn’t increase square footage so the city would be able to do that modification to the plan with a building permit application.

If the exterior facade changed, Fernandez said the plan might need to go through a modification, adding it would be a “fairly standard” process.

The commission unanimously passed three separate motions for a categorical exemption to CEQA, approval of architectural and design review and the use permit.

Sander asked about next steps, and Fernandez said he would contact him the following morning regarding the approval letter and the project conditions agreement.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.