The Riverside City Council officially backed a 347-apartment development on Tuesday, Dec. 17.
In a 5-1 vote, the council approved the project slated for the former Kmart store at Mission Grove Shopping Center, consisting of 9.92-acres located at 375 Alessandro Blvd. Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes opposed the project and Councilmember Steve Hemenway was absent from the meeting.
The store has been vacant since 2018, though Kmart owned the property until 2021, according to a city report about the project.
Riverside’s two other Kmart stores, on Iowa Avenue and Arlington Avenue, closed in 2017. In 2019, the Sears on Arlington Avenue followed.
Under the plan approved by the council Tuesday, the Mission Grove Kmart will be demolished to develop 347 units, including 24 studios and 133 one-bedroom, 180 two-bedroom and 10 three-bedroom apartments, as well as 513 parking spaces.
The project includes five buildings, each four stories, with apartments ranging from 576 square feet to 1,368 square feet, according to the same report.
The project will take 28 months to complete.
