A discount tool chain is about to fill one of Napa's most visible retail vacancies. Harbor Freight has announced plans to open a new store at 1203 W. Imola Ave. in the Riverpark Shopping Center, taking over the building that Rite Aid vacated when it closed the location in June 2025. The store is expected to open this fall and will carry the company's full lineup of tools and equipment for do-it-yourselfers and professionals alike.
The move fills a storefront that had sat empty since Rite Aid's Napa location was photographed shuttered in April 2025, part of the pharmacy chain's broader collapse. As reported by The Napa Valley Register, Rite Aid included the Napa store in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy closure filings, a process that ultimately led the chain to liquidate all of its more than 1,200 drugstores nationwide, including over 340 in California, according to CBS 8. Harbor Freight requested Napa city building permits back in March 2026, laying the groundwork for the fall opening, per the Register's reporting.
The former Rite Aid building is no small footprint. Commercial real estate listings show the space totals 17,360 square feet, and it's currently marketed as a single-tenant triple-net lease property, according to CommercialSearch. Harbor Freight will join an already active retail lineup at Riverpark Shopping Center, where neighboring anchor tenants include Grocery Outlet, Planet Fitness, Carl's Jr., and Providence Urgent Care, the listing notes.
Filling a Regional Gap for Tool Shoppers
Until now, Napa Valley residents needing Harbor Freight's discount tools had to leave the county entirely. The closest locations sat in neighboring Solano and Sonoma counties, including Vallejo roughly 16 miles south, Fairfield about 20 miles east, plus Petaluma and Santa Rosa, according to Harbor Freight's own store locator. The new Napa location closes that gap, giving DIYers and professionals in the surrounding area direct access to the company's tools and equipment without the drive.
Once open, the store is expected to follow Harbor Freight's standard hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday, with closures on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, per the company's published policy. A specific grand opening date has not yet been announced, though the Register reports the company has said it will share that timeline as the fall opening approaches.
New Jobs and Starting Pay in Napa
The Napa store is projected to create approximately 10 to 15 new jobs in the community, according to the Register's report. Job postings tied to the new location, reviewed on ZipRecruiter, list starting wages of $22 per hour for entry-level roles, including retail sales associates and seasonal stocking associates, with some positions covering temporary setup crew work ahead of opening as well as ongoing part-time retail staffing.
Harbor Freight's Napa debut fits a pattern the chain has repeated across the country this year. The company has been backfilling vacated mid-sized retail boxes elsewhere, including a former Food Lion in Maryland spanning 21,202 square feet and a 15,776-square-foot space in Boerne, Texas, both of which opened this year. Napa's incoming store, at 17,360 square feet, sits squarely within that typical range of 15,000 to 22,000 square feet the company tends to target.
A Family Business Grown Into a National Chain
Harbor Freight now operates more than 1,600 stores nationwide, according to the Register, and employs roughly 26,000 people across the country. The privately held company, headquartered in Calabasas, generates approximately $9 billion in annual revenue, according to Forbes.
The chain's roots trace back to 1977 in Southern California, per the Register, when it started as a small operation before growing into the national retailer it is today. Other accounts specify the company was founded on April 1, 1977, in North Hollywood by then-17-year-old Eric Smidt and his father Allan Smidt, originating as a mail-order business called Harbor Freight Salvage before shifting to direct factory sourcing, according to a history compiled by Business Model Canvas Research.
The company also runs a philanthropic arm focused on vocational education. Through the Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence, the company awards $2 million annually in cash prizes to 25 public high school skilled trades teachers and programs across the country, according to the Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize. The program was established by the company's founder in 2017.
For now, Napa shoppers will have to wait for an official grand opening date, but hiring and permitting activity suggest the fall timeline is on track. The store's arrival marks not just a new employer on West Imola Avenue, but the end of more than a year of vacancy at one of the corridor's largest retail spaces.
