Vallarta Supermarket and Ross Dress For Less stores in the near future will be occupying most of the empty Walmart building at Hatch and Mitchell, city officials have confirmed.
In addition, a developer plans to seek approval from the Ceres Planning Commission to add three new fast-food pads in the parking lot; as well as a new retail building of 10,000 square feet on the east side of the parking lot. A development plan also shows the former Walmart automotive center and garden area to be used for a brake, tire and/or transmission shop. Lastly, an oil/lube business is proposed for south of the Professional Auto Stereo and Security store building.
The 25,000-square-foot space next to Vallarta is intended to be a Ross store, said City Manager Doug Dunford. That leaves two more retail spaces of 10,000 square feet; and 23,900 square feet that will be accessible at the southeast corner of the former Walmart.
Vallarta Supermarkets signed a lease for 60,585 square feet of space, and plans to open in Ceres by the summer of 2026.
Founded in 1985, Vallarta Supermarkets Inc. is a chain based in Santa Clarita that caters to the Latino population by selling items usually not found in more Anglo-oriented American supermarkets. Plans are to open the Ceres store in the summer of 2026.
As of June, the chain had 55 locations in California and recently opened a store in Watsonville and has one in Madera County.
Besides Ceres, in May it was announced that Vallarta plans to occupy the space in the Century Center shopping center that once was a Raley’s store in east Modesto, as well as the former Save Mart on Pelandale Avenue near Highway 99. The Pelandale store is targeted to open by the end of this year, followed by Century Center on Oakdale Road in the spring of 2025 and Ceres in 2026.
“We’re pretty ecstatic about it,” said Dunford of the reuse of the abandoned Walmart which was emptied out in November 2021 when the Walmart Supercenter opened farther south on Mitchell Road near Highway 99. Since its closure, the city has been battling blight and homeless encampments at the site.
Remodeling the building will not require Planning Commission approval since the building already exists and is zoned for commercial use. But the development plan to add elements to the property will have to receive Planning Commission approval.
“I’m glad it’s not going to be what it is right this second, which is I don’t even know what you call it,” commented Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra, “because it was a homeless parking lot; now it’s kind of a vacant emptiness. It looks like a ghost town.”
She added that she doesn’t feel Vallarta is the best use of the building but “unfortunately that’s the only thing we can get through.”
Vierra said at least three other escrow attempts had fallen through for various reasons.
“Would I have loved to see a sports complex come through? Yes because that’s something different than what we have but they couldn’t come to an agreement. Now we move on to what we can get in there as opposed to nothing at all.”
Vierra said Ceres is temporarily handicapped with a population that has yet to hit 50,000 to move up from second tier to first tier opportunities. Ceres’ official population is at 48,988.
She lamented the closure of the KFC/A&W restaurant on the opposite corner from the old Walmart building as “an indication that our economy is definitely struggling.”
