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A CITY AT LAST

Victoria Gardens gives Rancho Cucamonga long-awaited downtown

BY DEBRA HAZEL

Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., has a rich history. For one thing, it was the penultimate stop before Los Angeles during the stagecoach era, back when the West was young. But what it never had was a downtown.

All of that will change soon, though, with the Oct. 28 opening of the $285 million Victoria Gardens.

The open-air project, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles on 147 acres at Interstate 15 and Foothill Boulevard, will eventually contain 1.3 million square feet of lifestyle retail, entertainment (including a cultural center and library) and office space, along with 20 acres of housing. It is a joint venture of Los Angeles-based Forest City California and Upland, Calif.-based Lewis Investment Co.

“It’s not a mall, not a lifestyle center,” said Victoria Garden’s general manager, Michael S. Wethington, in something of an understatement. “It is a tremendous community center for Rancho Cucamonga.”

It has taken 100 years for Rancho Cucamonga to get to this point. The area was largely agricultural, with homes spread far apart in what once comprised three towns: Etiwanda, Alta Loma and Rancho Cucamonga itself.

“This was all grapes at one time,” said Linda Daniels, director of the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Rancho Cucamonga.

The towns incorporated into one city in 1977, and officials have wanted to give it a proper downtown ever since. In 1983 they set aside the site for a shopping center and got proposals from several developers. Eventually, the city gave the go-ahead for The Hahn Co. to build a mall there. But still, nothing went up.

“That did not happen because the department stores weren’t ready,” said Brian M. Jones, president of Forest City California, a wholly owned subsidiary of Forest City Enterprises, Cleveland.

The late 1990s found the city seeking developers again, and still with an enclosed mall in mind. Forest City had other ideas, though.

“Rancho Cucamonga didn’t have a ‘there’ there,” Jones quipped, echoing Gertrude Stein’s words about Oakland, Calif. “This evolved into the project we have today.”

When Forest City got the nod in 2002, it brought in Lewis Investment, which has built retail, commercial and residential projects throughout the Inland Empire. (Lewis Investment was well acquainted with the site, having worked with Homart Development on a bid about 20 years before.)

Forest City has done the vast bulk of the retail, while Lewis is overseeing the residential development.

The project was named for its location, on Victoria Street, which was itself named for a model community developed in Australia in the late 19th century by Rancho Cucamonga co-founder William Chaffey.

The need for a city core has become more pressing than ever. Today the overall trade area consists of some 800,000 people, and another 44,000 will be added next year. The Inland Empire has added some 50,000 new homes in the past year alone.

“The Inland Empire is an area that has been underserved in restaurants and venues that are interesting places to go,” said Randall W. Lewis, an executive vice president of Lewis.

The center will feature 33 retailers new to the market, among them The Apple Store, Chico’s, Lifestyle, which offers home decor as well as apparel, Oshkosh B’Gosh and Zumiez, which sells apparel for skateboarder and surfers.

But it is the restaurant mix that will truly set the center apart, says Glenn Miller, SCMD, Victoria Gardens’ marketing director. The eateries will include Kabuki Japanese Sushi, Lucille’s Smokehouse Barbecue, P.F. Chang’s and Sisley Italian Kitchen.

The center is not all about shopping and eating, though, as witnessed by the 85,000-square-foot Rancho Cucamonga Cultural Center, which will include a library and children’s theater when the city opens it in 2006.

“This brings an element to the downtown that is not traditional retail,” Daniels said. “There will always be something happening.”

In all there will be 30 buildings on 12 city blocks.

Adapting a master plan created by Field Paoli, Los Angeles-based Altoon + Porter Architects designed a center that looks as though Rancho Cucamonga has had a downtown for decades.

“Architecturally, this is so far beyond anything done in the Inland Empire,” said Lewis, a developer of master-planned communities throughout the region.

“Once we decided to do a downtown, we carefully planned how it should be,” Jones said. “Some of the projects built in the same genre looked terrible. The whole bunch of us said, ‘Let’s pretend this project was built over time.’ ”

Each district sports the architectural style of a different era, beginning with the 1920s look of Town Square and getting “younger” toward the center’s fringes. Town Square includes a small “house” — actually a Jamba Juice — designed to look as though it were the first structure built in town. To lend authenticity, the center even has a couple of cinderblock buildings of plainer appearance “to act as a foil for those that are more glamorous in design,” said Ronald A. Altoon, a founding partner of Altoon + Porter Architects.

“This is much more urban than a watering hole.”

The project consists of three areas: North Main Street (with a retail focus on Generation Y stores, such as Hollister), South Main Street (the high-fashion district) and Town Square (geared more to children, with a central green and a play area).

“We said, ‘We need a place of tranquility,’” said Altoon, referring to the Town Square. “‘Let’s make a civic space free of cars, but within sight of them.’ ”

North Main Street has the most traditional downtown appearance, with its mixture of buildings in various styles housing the entertainment elements — the Cultural Center, a 16-screen AMC theater, and The Orchard, a food hall built in the style of a citrus-packing plant.

The entrance to the South Main section sports faux gates like those in tony Bel Air. These open onto a broad, tree-filled promenade leading to the department store anchors (J.C. Penney, Macy’s and Robinsons-May) and the specialty tenants.

The Orchard will have food retailers in a layout reminiscent of a food court, while the restaurants will be scattered throughout the project.

To keep a true urban scale, the buildings are two-level throughout the project, with some of the upper space dedicated to 40,000 square feet of offices. Some retailers, too, will have two floors.

Two parking decks will accommodate 5,700 vehicles, with an additional 200 metered spaces available on the project’s streets. And true to its name, some 3,000 trees are part of the Victoria Gardens landscaping.

As a result, the developers hope for a much larger trade area for the project. The recently completed Interstate 210 will increase the draw, allowing shoppers from Pasadena easy access.

“This will have a far pull — all the way to the west, 15 miles or more, to the high desert, such as Victorville,” said Lewis.

This fuels Forest City’s hopes for sales “way north of $400 per square foot” in the first full year of operation, says Jones. The city, for its part, is anticipating annual sales tax revenues upwards of $5 million.

“I know I’ll be there on weekends,” said Joseph W. Brady, president of The Bradco Cos., a Victorville, Calif.-based commercial brokerage that has no business relationship with the project.

So will a lot of other people, Brady says. San Bernardino County covers 21,000 square miles, and people in the Inland Empire are accustomed to driving as long as two hours to go shopping.

“You could probably build two more lifestyle centers in the high desert,” Brady said, noting the demand for retail.

The ground-breaking took place last November, and the main retail portion, about 900,000 square feet, will open next month, with the AMC to come on-line in December. The center will open 90 percent leased and between 80 and 85 percent occupied.

But even then, the project won’t be complete. Future development could bring as many as three office towers on a 17-acre parcel and some peripheral retail on an additional 14 acres.