WHAT’S THE HECK IS GOING ON AT BOB HOPE AND HWY 111? NEW Coachella Valley STORES???

Photos by CoachellaValley.com Demolishing of three buildings to make room for a new CVS drugstore with a drive-thru and an additional entrance from Highway 111 at the Rancho Las Palmas Shopping Center has begun that’s what.

Jim Dillavou, a principal with Paragon Commercial Group of El Segundo, said, “What we’re creating is a very defined shopping area where people can go across the street to The River for their entertainment and come over to our center to meet their daily needs.”

Demolition at the Las Palmas Shopping Center

And after CVS moves from its current spot at the west end of the center to its new building, Paragon will tear that building down to build a new 43,000 square foot Hobby Lobby crafts store.

PLUS, the construction should begin soon on the 30,000 square foot Stein Mart apparel and accessories store which will fill the anchor space left by Vons when the supermarket pulled out of the plaza in late 2009.

Stein Mart also has locations in La Quinta and Palm Springs, and says on its website it has more than 260 stores nationwide.

The structures being torn down seen in the photos include the city-owned Rancho Mirage Chamber of Commerce building on the corner, which stands where the CVS is slated to go.

Demolition at the Las Palmas Shopping Center

Also being torn down is the building housing the Thai Smile and Haru Sushi restaurants and a massage business, as well as a vacant restaurant building.

The center is more than half empty now but once it’s complete Dillavou said it will make the entire intersection a destination for all kinds of shoppers.