If a Starbucks latte is your idea of a civilized start to a long daily commute to work, you may be in luck, come next fall.

Robert and Janie Cohen of Gorman, operating as COPA Properties, hope that building will begin on their Grapevine Business Center in the spring of 2009. They have a letter of intent from Starbucks to locate at the property near the Interstate 5 on-ramp in Lebec, just east of Flying J. They have issued a call for bids for all phases of development and construction of 42,000 square feet of commercial space: a two-story building, plus two drive-through restaurant bays, Janie Cohen said in an interview Tuesday, Oct. 21. The building “will have retail on the ground level and professional services space upstairs,” Cohen said, adding that a Taco Bell may take the other drive-through restaurant position.

The Cohens also own Rocky’s Bar & Grill across the street, to the north of Flying J, and a cluster of small buildings in Gorman they call the Gorman Business Center.

–Reported by Patric Hedlund

This is part of the October 24, 2008 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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