Milpitas: Developers plan $100 million Asian-themed mall
By George Avalos
Oakland Tribune
POSTED: 01/13/2014 06:05:45 AM PST | UPDATED: ABOUT 8 HOURS AGO
A rendering shows the proposed Asian-themed Pacific Mall Silicon Valley to be built on the McCarthy Ranch property in Milpitas, Calif. (Steinberg Associates) ( Steinberg Architects )
MILPITAS -- A big enclosed Asian-themed shopping center is planned for a portion of the prominent McCarthy Ranch Marketplace here, a project that would bring hundreds of small merchants to the retail complex and construct a new hotel in the South Bay city, developers said Friday.
The $100 million project would create a 260,000-square-foot Asian retail center with potentially hundreds of small shops in the enclosed shopping complex, a 240-room hotel, and an underground parking garage for about 820 vehicles.
"It would be the only project of its kind in the United States -- a large enclosed Asian-themed mall," said Jim Kessler, a development adviser for Canada-based Torgan Group, the owner of the McCarthy Ranch retail complex. "There are other Asian-oriented tenant projects, but not of this scope and concept, with small units, a lot of owners."
McCarthy Ranch
Whereas most malls have a single corporate owner, with some exceptions for flagship stores, the new Milpitas mall will sell spaces for shops much the way residential developers sell condominiums. Some merchants will buy their own spaces, while others will lease them from realty investors.
Scheduled to open in 2017, the center will be named Pacific Mall Silicon Valley. It is expected to have 200 to 300 stores offering everything from clothing and consumer electronics to health food and cosmetics. The multilevel facility also will have a food court . . . .
The mall is modeled on the Pacific Mall in Toronto, which Torgan Group developed. The backers hope it will become a major regional draw for the Bay Area and Northern California . . . .
Milpitas officials believe the new complex could be a game-changer for the city . . . .
The Milpitas Planning Commission approved the project this week and the City Council will consider the matter within the next several weeks. If all goes well, the developers intend to begin construction in the spring of 2015, Kessler said . . . .