Summer to serve up a second shot of Starbucks

Though there are American cities where jokes have thrived about them being on every street corner, Somerset has been without its own freestanding Starbucks location since the start of the Obama administration.

That's about to change.

The Seattle-based coffee giant will be the next national chain to locate on surplus property bought and developed in front of the Oakwood mental health facility, alongside Popeye's Louisiana Kitchen and Chili's.

"It's a full-service store," said Cory Ikerd, partner of Makena Development and CEO of Ikerd Properties. "I think it's a good asset for the development. It's a big business to have there."

In the mid-2000s, Starbucks opened a coffee shop in the commercial center where Walmart is located, but found itself part of a round of closures in the fiscal year going from 2008 into 2009. Though Baxter's Coffee already had a strong presence in the community, Starbucks had its own local fan base as well.

"People assume (the store closed) because it was run out of town," said Ikerd. "I don't feel that (was the case) by any means. Corporate just made a lot of changes and closed a lot of mid-major stores down (at that time); it was just one on the chopping block. ...They're re-entering into a handful of those markets."

The store has a target opening date of "mid-summer 2021," said Ikerd. 

The company was founded in 1971 as a coffee bean retailer, then acquired in 1987 by Howard Schultz. Since that time, Starbucks has acquired and built coffeehouses all over the world. In addition to drip brewed coffee and espresso beverages, Starbucks shops also serve tea and bottled beverages, pastries and ready-to-eat sandwiches.

Though this will be the community's first full Starbucks location in more than a decade, a smaller Starbucks has operated within the Kroger Marketplace since 2016.

The Makena development property still has six tracts open for potential commercial businesses to locate there, but the presence of a name like Starbucks can only help make the area more attractive, noted Ikerd.

"Any national chain of that size is beneficial to the development and also the community," said Ikerd. "A lot of stores like Chick-fil-A, Walmart, Starbucks, businesses maybe a tad smaller, look at what their competitors are doing and take their lead."

Ikerd said that his company is in talks with other businesses, and details about further developments are "coming soon."