A developer wants to build housing next to Marina’s Walmart, but the city council needs to get on board first.

Erik Chalhoub here, with Kmart on my mind. Back in the 1990s, the department store chain seemed unstoppable, and I spent many a weekend at one of the multiple stores within a 10-mile radius of my home. I’m also an alum of UC Santa Cruz’s Kresge College, named after the founder of Kmart, so I have a soft spot for the store.

But Kmart went the way of the dinosaur, leaving behind shells of big box stores and massive parking lots with outdated zoning requirements hindering modern development in the area. Today, Marina’s former Kmart is now a popular Walmart after Terry Tallen bought the property 20 years ago.

It’s now 2026, and rarely do you see primarily big box stores being constructed with a sea of pavement around them. California’s housing crisis has been well-documented, and cities have been moving toward allowing housing with commercial projects on valuable land—and also because they are under pressure from the state to bring in more housing.

Yet, the empty land around Walmart in Marina looks mostly as it did when Kmart was still in existence, as its zoning remains the same from decades ago. For years, Tallen and his company Tallen Capital Partners have been trying to attract a retailer to set up shop on an empty five-plus acres of land next to Walmart, to no avail. Most say the same things: visibility is poor, as the property is below the surrounding roads and just far enough from Highway 1 to be unnoticeable. Traffic counts, also, are about half of what they need to be.

Tallen is pushing the City of Marina to rezone the property to mixed-use to allow for housing, and it seems to be paying off. In November, the Marina Planning Commission recommended the City Council rezone the property. It’s part of discussions around updating the Local Coastal Program, a land use document that covers 1.5 square miles of Marina, including the Marina Landing Shopping Center where Walmart is located.

Tonight, March 17, the council is scheduled to discuss the plan.

In conceptual plans, Tallen is proposing 250 apartment units—50 designated as affordable—with 50 townhomes, along with a restaurant. A portion of the property, owned by the Indiana University Foundation, of which Tallen is an alum, would be designated as teacher and workforce housing.

Tallen says he is looking for equal property rights as the mixed-use Dunes in south Marina, as zoning at the other end of the city doesn’t currently allow such development.

“North Marina deserves this,” he says of his plans.

Tallen sees the proposal as a win for Marina and a win for housing. Attend the meeting tonight or tune in virtually to get the council’s take and share your thoughts.