DoorDash eyes Sonoma County for DashMart everyday-essentials delivery hub

DoorDash (NYSE: DASH), a major U.S. player in third-party delivery from restaurants, coffee shops and increasingly grocery and convenience stores, wants to open one of its new delivery hubs in Santa Rosa.

An affiliate of the San Francisco-based company leased a 9,380-square-foot former Performance Shoes space at 1993 Santa Rosa Ave. and is pursuing zoning clearance and a conditional use permit from the city of Santa Rosa to open one of its DashMart locations, according to city documents and the deal brokers involved.

DoorDash got its start in 2013 by allowing consumers to use its smartphone app to order meals from restaurants, which gig drivers would opt to pick up and deliver to the home or office.

In April 2020 amid the shelter-at-home public health orders across large swaths of the country, DoorDash expanded into everyday household goods via partnerships with convenience store chains like 7-Eleven and Wawa as well as drug stores Walgreens and CVS. This venture would be based from DashMart locations, initially in Chicago, Minneapolis, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dallas, Salt Lake City, the Phoenix area and Redwood City in Silicon Valley. It expanded to more cities that year, such as California cities Sacramento and Concord, and now also operates in Canada.

These DashMart locations carry over 2,000 “convenience, grocery, and restaurant items, from ice cream and chips, to cough medicine and dog food, to spice rubs and packaged desserts from the local restaurants,” the company said in an announcement.

DoorDash would purchase products from partner retailers and local small businesses (via its Main Street Strong program). DoorDash app users then could purchase items for delivery. One of the goals the company said of DashMart was to speed up delivery by having the orders ready for drivers to pick up in one location, rather than going to several stores to pick up items.

In the past few years, DoorDash has launched a subscription service, DashPass, for unlimited free delivery and reduced service fees on orders over $12 from participating vendors. The service costs $10 a month, or $8 monthly for the annual plan.

Because these locations are partly industrial warehouse, storing products and not open to the public, and partly retail, site selection and zoning conversations with the city have been challenging, according to Niels von Doepp, the Cushman & Wakefield agent who represented lessee Door Dash Essentials in the deal signed last June. Tom Laugero of Keegan & Coppin Co. Inc. represented building owner Fox Partners.

The Business Journal asked the city and DoorDash for comment. The city didn’t respond, and a company spokesperson said it had no comment on the Santa Rosa location.

Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Before coming to the Business Journal in 1999, he wrote for Bay City News Service in San Francisco. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.

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