San Pedro's new Smart & Final opening within weeks

Five months after the pending deal was aounced, a new Smart & Final Extra store is set to open in the next few weeks on 25th Street and Weste Avenue in San Pedro.

“When the Haggen locations became available we certainly thought this was a good location for a Smart & Final so we jumped at the opportunity,” said Marisol Marks, director of communications for the chain that operates 240 Smart & Final stores in Califoia, Nevada and Arizona.

More than half of the Smart & Final stores now are “extras” — offering groceries, including organic products, and more diverse offerings of both warehouse/business-size and smaller, family-size items.

Before the Haggen opened in spring 2015, the 32,000-square-foot building at 1636 W. 25th St. was home to an Albersons market.

San Pedro’s other vacant Haggen store — in the Garden Village Shopping Center at 28134 S. Weste Ave. — remains up for lease with no updates on a possible new tenant, according to a spokeswoman for the leasing agency.

Early in 2015, Haggen, which is based in Bellingham, Wash., acquired 83 Califoia locations where a Vons or Albertsons operated. Another 63 stores opened in Arizona and Nevada.

But the chain’s expansion into the southwest quickly crashed and the company aounced a full pullout from Southe Califoia only months later, filing bankruptcy late last year.

Three other local Haggen stores — two in Redondo Beach and one in Torrance — reopened as Smart & Final Extra markets in March.

While the 50-member staff has been hired for the new San Pedro store, Marks said other positions may open up and prospective employees can still apply either at the store when it opens or send resumes to [email protected]/.

The stores also have launched a new First Street First Percent program in which 1 percent of net profits from sales of the Smart & Final store brand will be donated to charitable foundations in the community. Among those participating in the area already are the Boys and Girls Clubs of the L.A. Harbor, Dana Middle School, Friends of Chael Coast State Parks, Fremont Attendance Improvement Program and Port of Los Angeles High School. Nonprofits can apply through sfcharities.versaic.com/.

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