New Mooney Shopping Center -
Is It Too Big?

Visalia - Developer Don Orosco presented a strong case for his new nearly 700,000 sq. ft. shopping center that sprawls on both sides of south Mooney Blvd. just south of Packwood Creek. Orosco presented the long awaited plan to the Visalia Planning Commission late last month in a meeting that was continued until April 8th.

The Packwood Creek shopping center will hold a public hearing at the Convention Center at 7 p.m. April 24th in anticipation to the matter will be voted on by the Planning Commission this next session. The Visalia City Council meeting should be one rock and roll affair.

The Planning Commission appears poised to approve the project asking city attorney Dan Dooley to research the question of requiring the developer to back fill any space of a retailer larger than 20,000 sq. ft. relocated to the new center from within town.

The Planning Commission took testimony from a large crowd of Visalians, some concerned about the impact of the center on the rest of the business community.

Orosco suggested the center would mean new retailers coming to town including Lowes and Best Buy and now Kohls - the rapidly expanding clothing retailers who plans to open a large number of stores in the state over the next few years. Orosco suggested he would like to site Kohls in the old Target location that he would buy from Target allowing a new 140,000 sq. ft. "Greatland" Target to be sited on the west side of Mooney (see map).

Orosco has this second center planned on the west side of almost equal size that brings the square footage to 680,000 - about the square footage of two Sequoia Malls. While Target is the main anchor, the other two big boxes shown in the drawing are not firm tenants. The square footage of the two smaller buildings adds up to enough room to attract a new Costco or Walmart - both of whom have been negotiating with Orosco as well.

Kohls has some 350 stores nationwide but reportedly would open as many as 50 in southern California in the next few years. The company runs department store size stores aimed at middle class families and remains one of the few retailers who have gained Wall Street's support in recent years with their stock price reaching a 52 week high March 27th.

In speaking to the Planning Commission Mr. Orosco suggested that the Packwood Creek shopping center would offer the following benefits:

• Creation of new tax revenues in excess of $1.5 million per year

• Creation of an additional 1000 new jobs

• Bring new shoppers to Visalia

• Strengthen Mooney Blvd. as a regional shopping destination

• Increase the likelihood of Visalia attracting new major retailers

• Reduce Visalia and Tulare County's leakage into Fresno County.

The mix of new and possible relocated tenants from town has a divided city council wrestling with the new project wanting it to attract new retail tax dollars to town without gutting the rest of the retail area in the city. While phase 1 is 680,000 sq. ft., the entire 130 acre project covers more than 1 million sq. ft. phased in later years.

Eager to get this long awaited project, Orosco had told Lowes he hopes to begin pushing dirt in June depending on the city council vote.

"I think it's going to be 3 to 2 but I don't know how it comes out," says council member Don Landers. Council member Wendy Rudy says she sees both positive and negative in the proposal. "Even though people say we already have a Home Depot and Circuit City - a Lowes and Best Buy will bring competition and choice" to Visalia, says Rudy and developer funds to build Cameron Ave.

The negative, she says, is "more traffic, more difficulty for other developers around town to attract tenants." She says she might look at a possible compromise that would allow development of some of the possible 680,000 but not all.

For example cutting of the project by about half would allow Orosco to build the east side center where he plans to attract Lowes, Best Buy, Ross, PetsMart and four other major retailers along with three restaurants to the new proposed center just past Packwood Creek.

But that could kill or delay any Target deal, meaning according to competitors, Target, Kohls, Walmart and Costco would not be players at the new Orosco center next year but would negotiate for other sites in town that are available. The main sites available include Demaree and Caldwell where Walmart is looking, Walnut and Mooney where Target is in discussions and the Uhlmann center on 198 and County Center where room for major retail is available.

"Why would the city want to pile up all new retailers at one spot - at the end of Mooney," asks developer Dave Paynter who is working to attract some tenants to the old "sin city" site across from the Visalia Mall. Sources say Paynter could secure some of these tenants because of the good location of his 17 acre center and insist he will buy Mooney frontage to allow better visibility to it once the Packwood Creek issue is resolved.

Indeed, retail development in town has been tied up for the past two years as retailers and developers wait for a decision by the city over this huge issue.

Asked if Mr. Dooley has offered an option on the backfill issue, assistant city manager Dianne Guzman says he will likely suggest a possible conditional use process that would ask the developer if another tenant has been secured for the spot that is being vacated but that is unlikely to have any enforcement penalty. Planning Commission or council could, of course, strengthen that commitment.

Asked what would happen if the city council suggested the size of the project in phase 1 be reduced, Ms. Guzman says the response would be up to the developer to see if the project still penciled out. "If you cut the project in half, he in essence doubles the cost," she says. Still she says "cities do that all the time" - decide if the scale of a project is appropriate or not.

Just a few years ago Orosco debated the effect of the big Kashian project proposed at the time for Plaza and 198 - a large retail center with a movie theater that Orosco said would sap development from the rest of Visalia. Kashian developed River Park in Fresno - at one end of Blackstone that critics say has in fact sapped development from the rest of Blackstone including the relocation of a number of retailers. But Orosco points out that the Packwood Creek center fits in Visalia's long term plan layed out decades ago that allows a reserve area right next to the existing retail shopping area to be developed once most of the existing strip fill in. "This is in compliance with the 2020 plan" unlike the proposed Plaza/198 project. He says the River Park project in Fresno has had a "positive effect" on North Blackstone.

There are differing views of the design of the center as well with Orosco emphasizing a "Mediterranean village consisting of small plazas" and critics like former mayor Greg Collins calling the project a couple of "big boxes floating on a sea of parking lots."

A critic of the project, Dave Harris the general manager of the Sequoia Mall, says he sees a policy on relocating tenants problematic depending on how they word it. "What if the lease runs out - is the developer still responsible" to back fill the site?

The Sequoia Mall is likely to lose Ross Store to the Packwood Center if the project is approved. Another existing retailer considering a move south is Pier One whose lease runs out soon.

Harris says he doesn't see the city going for cutting the square footage of the phase 1 project because the project and city need all the money for the road and infrastructure the big project will cost.

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Visalia - Set in motion by Kaweah Delta's decision to construct a new 112 bed, 6-story tower in the next few years in the heart of Downtown - about a $100 million investment - the City of Visalia is preparing some big dollar moves of its own.

Just this week the city purchased 11.3 acres at Burke and Goshen Ave. just south of the stockyards from the Van Ness family for around $1.76 million. They are working to buy additional acreage from the Union Pacific railroad who owns much of the remaining open land between Santa Fe and Ben Maddox. Added to the stockyard area there is probably 50 acres of mostly open land the city sees as future growth land for Downtown that could be the home for government and private offices, most believe.

"I think we are continuing with something that was started years ago," says council member Phil Cox who is also a downtown business owner. "We're trying to encourage the downtown to grow east," notes Cox since "there isn't room to grow west."

Visalia council members want to relocate the city's civic center to the east but have not come to an agreement just where to land.

The two schools of thought are to build a new complex close to Downtown, probably in the greater Santa Fe Ave. area - a street the city is banking on converting to a key 4-lane cross-city boulevard instead of the sleepy back road it appears today.

While this option would require land assembly some from private businesses a second option is to locate on some of that open land by the stockyards clustered perhaps with another government agency that need space.

That agency may be the County of Tulare, says board chair Steve Worthley. "We've had some preliminary discussions with the city about the need for more space for Health and Human Services," he says. Supervisor Bill Maze says the county seeks to relocate the HHS office in the old County Courthouse and annex spanning Center to Oak St. possibly to a new complex to be built to the east. It's not clear what would happen to the older buildings there, but the former courthouse is said to have major asbestos problems that would have to be dealt with in order to restore it for new use.

Suggesting the idea of a Santa Fe strategy for a new civic center, council member Don Landers says he would oppose an effort to locate the new city hall too far to the east and says his goal would be to combine all the city planning and administrative functions in one building instead of the City Hall East-West we have today.

"I believe the city's convention center could use the City Hall East property," says council member Bob Link who also favors a civic center closer to the central Downtown instead of out near Ben Maddox.

Also looking at the possibility of a Santa Fe location is the Visalia Chamber of Commerce, says CEO Ken Oplinger. "We've heard about the plans for Santa Fe" that would make a possible location at the southeast corner of Acequia and Santa Fe attractive, says Oplinger since it will be an area with lots of new development going on. The site is a city parking lot now.

A tangible symbol of the rejuvenation of east Visalia is plans to build an elegant Santa Fe automobile bridge over 198 in the next few years. The city has committed to making this bridge special prompting the Valley Voice late last year to ask for design ideas for the bridge. The design ideas shown here are what we received. The city expects to begin the design phase of the bridge within the next 60 days. Currently the old railroad bridge is a bottleneck to full access into this part of town. The old bridge will be removed to construct this new one that will make Santa Fe into an artery more akin to Caldwell Ave. in terms of its traffic flow in the future.

The new Transit Center is expected to break ground this year at Oak and Santa Fe as will a new 2-story Family Health Care clinic across the street. Oak St. itself was punched through in the past few months and two railroad signals put in because the street is expected to get plenty of traffic in coming years.

Just what happens to the current City Hall's two blocks isn't clear although the city has now agreed to build a parking lot at Conyer and Mineral King to help shuttle Kaweah Delta employees during the coming of many months of construction of the new hospital wing a few blocks to the east.

Link says he believes "this will likely be part of Kaweah Delta's medical campus in the future" possibly offices for private physician and clinic use.

"West of Kaweah Delta I can see the logical use for doc's office and other medical services," says Cox.

Already the city has signaled it will relocate its cops on the beat to two precinct stations in coming years dividing the town north and south. By this time next year the north side precinct could be open. That could mean the new civic center would then house neither a working police or fire station but be for administration only.

Kaweah Delta's long term plan to "build a campus" over a 10 block long area in downtown sets the stage for likely private medical investment nearby and helps push the current City Hall and chamber offices to the east.

In the meantime, the eastside move is tied into a plan to restore and build trails along Mill Creek downtown. A draft master plan of the creek restoration is expected to be released in the next few weeks. The purchase of the Van Ness property along both oak studded Jennings Ditch and Mill Creek is part and parcel with a plan to build a "walkable downtown" says city council member Wendy Rudy who sees merit in a future City Hall out in this open land area. "It's going to be beautiful out there," she says. Giant oaks grace the area, a place so overgrown in the past that it used to be called Hobo Jungle.

Plans for the area over the years had envisioned a water feature like a lake or pond adjacent Mill Creek.

A task force studying Mill Creek is looking at the possibility of changing the alignment of the creek as it travels west from the Hobo Jungle area possibly running close to the new Transit Center.

Creekside trails and tree planting all around downtown are underway with a possible trail through the Redwood campus that could be built this summer, says Mark Fulmer assistant school superintendent. The school yard would have a trail that would connect all the way from Demaree back through Ben Maddox in coming years according to the master plan.

That trail includes Mill Creek running through the new multi-block KDDH "campus" that assumes closure of a number of streets in a few years. Last week Lindsay Mann backed off plans to potentially buy 80 acres on Shirk as a back up plan for Downtown noting this week that the district has made a commitment to the Downtown.

Now that major investment has set dominos in motion elsewhere including city plans to begin construction of a new $10 million Acequia parking garage just north of the hospital that would be built in the next two years, says Dianne Guzman, assistant city manager.

The idea of redevelopment in the older service-commercial rail yard part of Visalia has been discussed for years since the industrial park was organized and west Main ended up taking many of the newer service-commercial expansions in recent decades. That left giant vacant parcels on both sides of Ben Maddox that development bypassed for years. Now it will be easily the biggest city's infill project ever.

The idea of moving City Hall to the old stockyard area was the brainchild of former mayor Greg Collins and has been saluted by most council members since as part of the city's long term strategy, if not with a City Hall then with other uses that have included a new ballpark or a 4-year college campus.

Phil Cox likes the idea of a City Hall site further east particularly now that the city will own the land. "It doesn't make sense to me to go out and try to acquire a new site now that we have this land under our belt," says the new council member. Cox remembers the city commissioned a Quad Knopf survey of several sites in the past two years including the site on Burke west of the stockyard.

The stockyards themselves would move if the City of Visalia was able to offer a site says a Farm Bureau member. The city had discussed offering a small portion of the Caldwell Ave. walnut grove land west of 99. The Farm Bureau itself has discussed moving its office to the Ag Center in Tulare - an idea that is still under discussion.

East of Ben Maddox the city purchased much of the remainder of the old Edison pole yard and is now marketing the parcel on Ben Maddox at Goshen to the private sector. Already a new Burger King at Ben Maddox and Goshen is planned with two other parcels available.

The widening of Ben Maddox, Goshen and other streets through the area will take further property and set the stage to a renewal of what has been this forgotten real estate in the past, a place they figured was most suited to store junk cars and porta potties. Just east of Ben Maddox off Goshen, the Visalia Unified School District is buying 20 acres for their new corporation yard as well where they plan to also sell fuel for natural gas vehicles.

Reached at deadline, mayor Jesus Gamboa says he is not ready to say where he thinks a new civic center ought to be leaving the issue of a likely location up in the air with two council members suggesting support to the east and two closer to Downtown.

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Visalia - Porterville developer Ben Ennis has submitted a plan for an 110 acre retail center with around 800,000 sq. ft. at the northwest corner of Shirk and 198 - a plan that includes about 45 acres for car dealers.

The dealers would be up front, says project manager Drew Juvinall the real estate broker on the deal. That includes a 15 acre commitment by Ford dealer Tim Razzari who has a contract if the deal is approved, says Juvinall.

"We are going to ask for approval from the City of Visalia to annex the land into the city," says Juvinall. The site is currently in the county and zoned for ag.

Ennis is a competitor to Westlands Development who is working with both the city and county at alternative sites to build an auto mall as well. All these developers are trying to open the door to an auto mall on current farmland along freeways.

Just this week the Visalia city council voted 3 to 2 to proceed with plans to build an auto mall west of Roeben clear to Shirk, says mayor Jesus Gamboa who says he was not one who supported the idea. He says the council's action set in motion a likely request to annex this county land into the city along with efforts by Westlands Development to assemble a parcel out there to make it happen.

Gamboa who is not excited about any auto mall on either side of Shirk, says all the activity "is simply jockeying for position."

The Ennis project is being proposed on a site the council agreed to keep a more rural look as ag/residential in an earlier concept plan aimed at finalizing a future plan for West 198. But interest in development on the site has its supporters, believes Juvinall, including support on the council.

This latest plan includes a set back similar to the northwest option of Akers and 198, says Juvinall. Most council members had said they want a heavily forested set back along west 198 that if implemented would hide the car sales area from travelers. That's not the case in the Ennis project - a plan likely to encounter strong opposition from residents who have feared an auto mall on west 198 would turn it into a Selma Auto Mall look. The Ennis plan also includes over 300,000 sq. ft. of new office space, a 240,000 sq. ft. hotel and several restaurant pads added to the dealerships accessed off interior roads that lead off Shirk.

The Westlands project would be accessible off the south side of 198 off Shirk that would connect to the Westlands shopping center toward Akers on Cypress which would be punched through from Akers.

The third option - the highly publicized plan to build an auto mall at 198 and 99 remains in Westlands hands as an option but will likely not be pursued as long as their similar project within the city limits of Visalia is on the table.

The close vote on the Westlands project - done in closed session - suggests a stormy battle ahead for the project whether its on the north or south side of 198 along the famous scenic corridor. A large constituent of Visalians simply don't want a car dealership in this area.

Two Visalia car dealers, Mr. Razzari and Mr. Surroz, have suggested they want a freeway location to expand their business. Now it appears each may be backing different horses.

Some council members want to stay with the current plan to continue expanding car dealerships in the Ben Maddox area where four separate dealerships are located and perhaps $15 million has been invested in recent years in new or remodeled showrooms at the city sanctioned Visalia Auto Mall.

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