OAKDALE, Calif. — Two years ago, Kmart closed their doors in Oakdale. Since then, it's left the state of California entirely.
However, one thing that remains is the husk of the former store in Oakdale. After two years, the City of Oakdale said it remains empty.
"The City of Oakdale would love to have another large tenant in that building serving the good people of Oakdale... Ultimately, however, this can only happen with the support and concurrence of the company that owns the building," the City said in a Facebook post.
The building is owned by Benderson Development, LLC out of Florida, and any new business that goes there would have to be one that they sign.
According to the City, they and Opportunity Stanislaus reached out to retail giant Target back in 2019 to possibly fill the void. Earlier this year in Grass Valley, Target took over the lease for the last Kmart in California. It was the end result of a years long conversation with the developer and Kmart.
But while the deal worked out in Grass Valley, the same wasn't true for Oakdale following their 2019 talks.
"Despite our best-efforts Target representatives reminded us that they already have a store located 8 miles away from the center of Oakdale and that they were not interested in locating into Oakdale at that time," officials said on Facebook.
Similar efforts were taken with Walmart, but the City said that meeting never happened.
The City said they'll keep working to bring in new businesses.
At the time, the loss of the super store in the city of more than 20,000 people left the city without a major big box retailer for everyday household goods. Some residents told ABC10 that they would have to make trips to other developed areas like Riverbank or Modesto to visit similar stores.
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