Tehachapi News

Big 5 Sporting Goods opening in Tehachapi

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Major sporting goods retailer Big 5 will open a store at the Tehachapi Orchard shopping center between March and June 2010.

“The deal was completed this week,” Brad Sobel, owner of Orchard with his father, Lloyd Sobel, said on Oct. 9. “We started construction on the building this week. This is the last pad [available].”

Sobel Development is constructing the 11,245-square-foot building to Big 5 specifications.

The Big 5 retail chain, which has stores in 382 locations in 11 western states, concluded that the demographics of the Greater Tehachapi area would support the enterprise.

“They do their homework,” Brad Sobel said. “They felt Tehachapi was an under-served market in the sporting goods arena.”

Sobel said that the shoe market in Tehachapi was “vastly” under-served in the tennis shoe and every other category.

The deal has taken a while to hatch.

“[Tehachapi Community Development Director] Dave James and have been talking to Big 5 for the last four years,” said City Manager Greg Garrett. “It's not something that happened overnight.

“Mr. Sobel is providing the venue for that to happen.”

While most national chains require a minimum threshold population of 50,000 for such an enterprise, “We're not quite there,” Garrett said.

Garrett said that out-of area shoppers come from Rosamond, Boron, California City, Mojave - and even some from Lone Pine to access the larger stores in Tehachapi.

“A lot of different communities come to Tehachapi for their shopping needs,” he said. “Tehachapi is becoming a destination for shoppers.”

The major sporting goods store should put a small dent in the “retail leakage” created when locals go elsewhere to shop, spending $75 million annually in Lancaster, Palmdale and Bakersfield.

The Big 5 company is based in El Segundo.

Its stock, sold on NASDAQ, hit a 52-week high of $16.60 on Oct. 7, 2009, up from a 52-week low of $3.02 on Nov. 21, 2008.

There are two Big 5 stores in Bakersfield, one in Lancaster, one in Valencia and one in Palmdale.

Sobel said the outlook for the economy over the next two years will be much brighter.

“They [Big 5] think the same thing or they wouldn't be doing this,” he said.

The Big 5 product mix, according  to its web site, includes athletic shoes, apparel and accessories as well as a broad selection of outdoor and athletic equipment for team sports, fitness, camping, hunting, fishing, tennis, golf, snowboarding and in-line skating.