MICHAELS JOINS IN RETAIL BOOM.

Byline: JIM SKEEN Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- The bustling 10th Street West retail corridor is due to get a Michaels craft store and several new restaurants, city officials and developers say.

The Michaels craft store will go into a renovated former Kmart store, and restaurants are planned in that center and elsewhere along 10th Street West between the Antelope Valley Mall and Technology Drive.

``There's an awful lot of demand here,'' Mayor Jim Ledford said. ``When you get a median income and cost of living like we have here, it spells disposable income.''

The former Kmart shopping center at the northeast corner of 10th Street West and Rancho Vista Boulevard is getting a continued makeover that started with the opening of Wickes furniture store.

Until the Wickes store opened in November, the building had stood vacant for three years. The building is part of a retail complex called Sierra Commons that is being developed by Grae Palmdale Rancho Vista LLC, the same firm that developed the Amargosa Commons shopping center a quarter-mile south.

Sierra Commons will also be getting a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, a Pick Up Stix Asian food restaurant, Jared's Jewelers, and a Pacific Dental office.

Michaels and the other businesses will be open late this year.

With the new additions, there is now roughly 20,000 square feet of space left to be leased, said Dan Otter, one of the project's developers.

A family-style buffet and grill restaurant called Golden Corral is planned on 2.5 acres south of Technology Drive east of 10th Street West.

Construction is tentatively set to begin later this summer or early fall on the 11,000-square-foot building. Construction will take about five months. The restaurant is expected to employ 130 to 150 workers.

A number of other restaurant chains continue to express interest in Palmdale in general and the Antelope Valley Mall area in particular.

One possible addition to the mall is a BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse. A spokesman for the company said the Palmdale location is one it is interested in, but no lease agreement has been finalized.

Likewise, Soup Plantation also is interested in Palmdale and has looked at sites, but no agreements have been signed.

City officials said the On The Border Mexican restaurant chain is also interested in possibly locating a restaurant at the mall.

Just to the east of Sierra Commons, on the south side of Rancho Vista Boulevard, a building that will house a Sherman Williams paint store and a Cycle Gear motorcycle accessory store is going up. About another 6,000 square feet remains to be leased, Otter said.

james.skeen(at)dailynews

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