Barrio Logan’s long-awaited retail center finally has an anchor tenant and a development partnership with commitment to the community and experience on the job.

El Tigre, a Latino grocery store chain, will occupy 36,112 square feet. Other leases have been executed with Factory 2-U, Radio Shack and Subway.

San Diego Mercado will be a $20 million, 110,000-square-foot shopping center on 6.5 cleared acres between National and Main streets off Cesar Chavez Parkway. The project allies LandGrant Development of San Diego, which opened Las Americas, a 75-store retail center, two years ago at the Tijuana border, and the Metropolitan Area Advisory Committee, better known as the MAAC Project, a service agency working in the neighborhood for nearly 40 years.

Besides social services, MAAC’s workbasket extends to real estate development and management projects, like the Mercado Apartments that opened to laurels and awards for its planning and execution 10 years ago in Barrio Logan.

The city of San Diego Redevelopment Agency acquired and donated the land for San Diego Mercado, making the project feasible, says Jan Laufik, MAAC’s director of real estate development. “It’s been a long process,” he says. “The city contributed the land some time ago. The difference is we landed an anchor tenant.”

The discretionary approval process and tenant marketing had begun in 2000, but after Sept. 11, 2001, financing dried up and many tenants rescinded their leases, says C. Sam Marasco, LandGrant president and CEO. “So 2002 was dedicated to holding the tenants that remained together and waiting for the financial markets to come around,” he says.

Groundbreaking is set for the spring with grand opening one year later, says Laufik. Economic benefits will include $200,000 in real estate taxes, millions in sales taxes, 1,500 construction jobs and 300 long-term jobs, says Marasco. Austin Veum Robbins Partners is the architect.