Best Buy Opens in Duarte
The Duarte High School jazz band played, the Geek Squad paraded in front of the crowd in their black and white Volkswagens, City officials smiled broadly, and hundreds of anxious customers filled the parking lot on May 7 waiting for the doors to open to the new Best Buy store in Duarte.
City officials had lots to smile about. At a time when many cities are reeling from major store closings, the grand opening of the 48,000 square foot Best Buy store located off the 210 Foothill Freeway at Central and Mountain Avenues, promises a much needed boost to the City’s sagging sales tax revenues.
“This store couldn’t have come at a better time for this community, this city, this region,” said Duarte City Manager, Darrell George. “To deliver a retail giant in the electronics business like Best Buy is tremendous. You’re looking at upwards of 100 to 125 new jobs, roughly $350,000 to $500,000 a year in sales tax to help the city keep going. This is homerun through and through,” he said.
Mayor John Fasana called the opening of the Best Buy store a great day for Duarte. “The community now has a local opportunity to acquire the electronics they need, the appliances they need from America’s best electronic retailer,” said the Mayor. In addition to the added sales tax revenue the store will bring to the city, Fasana said he was also pleased that some 50 Duarte residents now have jobs at the new store.
Duarte High School students Aman Gupta, a senior, and Rodolfo Castrellon, a junior were both hired part-time as Digital Life Specialists, assigned to help customers with purchases including computers, cameras, mP3 players, and car audio equipment.
“I’m very excited to be working here. It’s my first job and I think it’s one of the best first jobs that a teenager like me could get,” said Gupta. It’s also the first job for Castrellon. He applied for the job online several months ago and after waiting some time was finally called in for an interview and was hired.
“They said they liked my style and that I was very mature for my age. It’s great to be working here and to put to use my knowledge of computers,” he said.
Best Buy has already demonstrated its commitment to serve the community by joining the Chambers of Commerce in both Duarte and Monrovia. The store also presented checks for $5,000 each to the Duarte Education Foundation and the Boys and Girls Club of the Foothills in Monrovia.
“Anytime a business opens it’s really good for us,” said Duarte Chamber President and Chief Executive Officer, Jim Kirchner. “But we know that Best Buy is going to be a good partner in the community. Everybody’s going to win,” he said.
Adjacent to the new Best Buy and soon to be completed on the 4.7 acre Duarte Redevelopment project are 9,000 square feet of in-line shops that developer Jacobsen Family Holdings II LLC is working to fill with restaurant and other national retail tenants. Also in conjunction with the project, an existing Staples store was totally remodeled, and a throughway was constructed to connect the Best Buy/Staples shopping center to the nearby Target shopping center.
