INLAND EMPIRE | Development News

[soup or man]

I always take the 2:27. Gets to LA at around 4. I run around the city, spend the night at a friends, Lost Souls for breakfast, Cal Plaza for lunch, train back to Riverside at 4:15, back home before Ugly Betty.

Metrolink can be a bit of a pain to plan around but so far, I've been ok.

[lochinvar]

The original 300 tried to do the impossible and paid it with their lives. This time you did it with no life lost.

[soup or man]

^ Yeah...that's some good drama.

[redspork02]

Mountain Grove at Citrus Plaza - Redlands, CA

Mix the ambiance of a charming small town with an impressive array of upscale shopping and entertainment options and you have Majestic Realty Co.'s newest and most ambitious retail development yet–Mountain Grove at Citrus Plaza.


Covering 62 acres with approximately 700,000-sq. ft. of retail space, Mountain Grove builds on the overwhelming success of the adjacent Citrus Plaza power center, also developed and owned by Majestic. When construction on Mountain Grove is complete in 2008, the two centers will provide complementary shopping experiences with more than 50 retailers spanning more than 1 million sq. ft. of retail space covering nearly 110 acres in California's fastest-growing region, the Inland Empire.
Visitors to Mountain Grove will enjoy an exciting yet intimate setting as they stroll tree-lined streets, and relax in lush, landscaped pocket parks - just the sort of attention to detail for which Majestic's award-winning Retail Development Group is well-known. Adding to the unique architectural style, Mountain Grove's very own central plaza will create a sense of energy and community in the heart of the development.




Currently in the design and pre-leasing phase, Mountain Grove will accommodate a wide variety of retailers. Negotiations are already underway in Zone 1 where many national promotionally oriented retailers can take advantage of the ample parking fields and 210 Freeway (formerly Hwy. 30) visibility. Zone 2 will accommodate some much needed home furnishings merchants who will take advantage of the trade area’s incredible housing growth. A 2,800± seat theater, multiple restaurants and many of today’s “lifestyle” tenants will anchor the project’s Zone 3 “Main Street” corridor while also enhancing Citrus Plaza’s entertainment experience. Zone 4, fronting on Alabama Street across from the newly constructed JCPenney store is planned for fitness, general merchandise and additional specialty retailers.

Located on the northwest corner of the San Bernardino (I-10) Freeway and 210 Freeway (formerly Hwy. 30), Mountain Grove is close to some of the Inland Empire's most affluent and highly-educated communities. With the on- and off-ramps at Alabama Street and San Bernardino Avenue, the nearby communities of Redlands, Loma Linda, San Bernardino, Highland and Yucaipa are all within easy reach. For your leasing needs, please call Tom Cozzolino at (562) 948-4311 or John Hunter at (562) 948-4372.




Plugging the 'Hole'
Redlands' plans to grow hinge on building boom
Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
Article Launched: 06/07/2007 04:59:23 PM PDT


REDLANDS - The expression "less is more" bears no relationship to development in the unincorporated commercial island here known as "the Doughnut Hole."
The large patch of turf north of Interstate 10, is already home to Citrus Plaza, a large shopping center that's a magnet for East Valley shoppers.

But more businesses are looming.

The developers behind Citrus Plaza are already advertising space in a proposed shopping center that could be even bigger. And that's not all. A Redlands-based developer is building another large center across the street.

"It will be a new city," said developer Charles House regarding the scope of enterprise being pursued in the Doughnut Hole by his and other companies.

The growth of the Doughnut Hole does not mean that Redlands proper has been forgotten. Chicago-based General Growth Properties is working on significant projects in central Redlands.

Redlands-based House Land Development Co. is behind the Palm Grove shopping center, which is under construction on the west side of Alabama Street.

The other big retail project in the works is called Mountain Grove at Citrus Plaza. City of Industry-based Majestic Realty Co., the company that developed Citrus Plaza, has proposed that project.

One of General Growth's more notable proposals is a concept that would rework Redlands Mall. The developers' plans would transform the mall area into an open-air shopping center that would blend with the boutique shops on State Street.

Inside the Doughnut Hole

Like a Hollywood blockbuster, the sequel to Citrus Plaza could be bigger than the original. County planner John P. McGuckian said Citrus Plaza has about 550,000 square feet of space.

Mountain Grove, he said, could include 650,000 square feet of retail, 300 dwellings and two hotels. Majestic Realty filed an application to develop Mountain Grove in early March.

In the parlance of developers, Citrus Plaza is a "power center" - a big place where customers shop in such big stores as Target, Barnes and Noble and Kohls. Majestic Realty vice president John Hunter said Mountain Grove will combine the aspects of a "power center" with a "lifestyle center." The latter term describes developments that mix shopping with entertainment.

Stores at the new center, Hunter said, could start opening as early as summer 2008.

He also remarked that the possible combination of entertainment venues and residences at Mountain Grove could spur downtown-style nightlife inside the Doughnut Hole.

The Palm Grove shopping center, House's project, is on tap to feature about 250,000 square feet of retail space. House is also developing two Marriott-branded hotels.

A J.C. Penney department store opened at Palm Grove last year. House expects the rest of the center to be ready for business by year's end.

The expansion of business inside the Doughnut Hole may not seem much of a surprise given the often-crowded conditions at Citrus Plaza. However, Hunter said it was initially a challenge to lure tenants there.

"Citrus Plaza was an enormous effort to convince the retailers that we had a market for them," he said. "It was one of the plots of the Inland Empire that was underused."

The Doughnut Hole is not only evolving as a retail hub. The land is also becoming a hive of industrial warehouses. Several large warehouse projects have been proposed for the area.

South of the freeway

Martin Vahtra, General Growth's senior development director, said the company and Irvine-based Hopkins Real Estate Group are moving forward with plans to raze and redevelop most of the Redlands Mall.

Other plans by General Growth call for a new shopping center to be called Redlands Promenade.

It would be built west of Eureka Street, south of Interstate 10. The retail center could include a grocery store and fitness center.

Of the two projects, work on the Promenade has gone further. Vahtra said he could not divulge the names of any tenants, but he did say that environmental studies are complete and ready to be evaluated by city officials.

Redlands planning commissioners are scheduled to discuss the Promenade project May 8, community development director Jeff Shaw said.

If commissioners give the project a favorable vote, it would be up to the City Council to decide whether it gets approved.

The revamping of the mall, which would leave anchor stores CVS Pharmacy and Gottschalk's in existence, would involve the demolition of much of the 1970s-era structure. The center would be redesigned so a private roadway adjacent to State Street would meld the mall, or the Village of Redlands under its new name, with the city's traditional shopping zone.

From a development standpoint, the project would be much different from the huge shops at Citrus Plaza. Instead, the Village's design is likened to turning back the clock to older, more urban approaches to development. Vahtra noted that plans are intended to be pedestrian-friendly and also call for residences to be built above stores.

"We're back to streetscape storefronts and using a model of downtown development that is decades, or even centuries old," Vahtra said.

Where the money goes

Redlands receives 90 percent of the Doughnut Hole's sales-tax revenues. Increases in tax revenues illustrate the expansion of commerce within Citrus Plaza since the center opened in 2003.

In fiscal 2003-04, Redlands tallied about $200,000 in sales tax from Doughnut Hole businesses. By fiscal 2005-06, that figure had grown to about $1.5 million.

If future Doughnut Hole stores turn out to be profitable, Redlands officials can look forward to having more money to spend on public services.

City officials do not yet have projections of how much tax revenue new Doughnut Hole stores could generate, finance director Tina Kundig said.

Also, Redlands officials won't be able to count that money for some time. Even if the Palm Grove and Mountain Grove projects are completed as planned, it can take a long time for city officials to reap the benefits of a customer's purchase.

City Treasurer Michael Reynolds observed that if someone makes a purchase at Citrus Plaza's Starbucks in January, most of the year will go by before a few cents of sales tax revenue gets passed to the city.

"For your cup of coffee, it could be September before we get our share of the action," Reynolds said.

[phattonez]

Great, another development to take away that farmland.

[Fern~Fern*]

Quick question but doesn't the IE threads belong in the West Coast Forum section???

[phattonez]

Might as well put it here since it's the Greater Los Angeles Area.

[redspork02]

Originally Posted by phattonez

Great, another development to take away that farmland.

This all used to be Orange Groves!
i dont know if you all pass through here but,
its just past San Berdoo, on the 10,
headin east.
On the left hand side, theres a bunch of huge Palm Trees, sticking up!
Beutiful!
image hosted on flickr

[phattonez]

Nature is beautiful too, and we lose so much of it with suburban sprawl. I wish that there was some way to stop our cities from building out and just limit them to building up. It's ridiculous, that picture is beautiful and that farmland is great. Cities in the Central Valley scare me.

[unmentioned]

really though, this is infill development, not sprawl. Mind you, it is suburban-style sprawly development, but it's going in on dead and vacant land (any farms that are there are not turning a profit with this drought, I can guarantee you). It's less of a loss than would be plowing over untouched land for a new big-box center.

[unmentioned]

If anyone in the Riverside Area gets Downtown any time soon, someone should get some pictures - the Raincross Promenade and phase I of m solé are coming along quite nicely.

[LA-dude]

Once I had to go to a doctor's appt. in downtown Riverside, which is very far from Downey, and I was suprised at how nice it looked, I saw so much potential in the whole surrounding area. With good planning this place could be even nicer in a few years.

[unmentioned]

Exactly. It's a great area with a great urban framework, just in need of a little well-directed investment. There is already so much there, and with a full-time population it could support so much more.

[redspork02]

[redspork02]

The New 91 interchange 60 Freeway in Riverside is Now OPEN. yayyyyy!!!

[soup or man]

The Regency Tower is offically under construction (digging up the parking lot for about a week now).



It will be a bit taller than the Presely Detention Center which is right across the street:

[unmentioned]

sweeeeet.... only five months behind schedule, at least according to the sign (Regency Tower: Construction Fall 2007)

[TICONLA1]

Now, this is a 10 story office building, right..?

[soup or man]

^ Yep.

[soup or man]

It's in downtown Riverside btw.