Pacific US Sells Neighborhood On Residential With Shopping By SHELLY GARCIA Senior Reporter In most instances, efforts to build large commercial developments meet with cries of “too much traffic” from neighboring residents. But a proposed development in Santa Clarita passed muster, not in spite of its commercial component, but because of it. Golden Valley Ranch, which was just approved by Santa Clarita city officials, is a 1,300-acre planned community with about 500 homes and a retail center of about 575,000 square feet. As is the case with most developments of that scale, the developer, PacificUS Real Estate Group in Pasadena, will also be setting aside 960 acres for open space as an enticement to the existing residents to embrace the project. But the real selling point was the retail component. “The current homeowners don’t want the Newhall Land and Farming kinds of developments gobbling up Canyon Country,” said Paul Giuntini, president of PacificUS, the managing division of PacSun LLC, “but they do want and need retail shopping opportunities. If they want to go shopping (now), they have to drive clear across Soledad Canyon.” PacificUS, which acquired the property east of the Antelope (14) Freeway between Via Princessa and Golden Valley Road in the mid-1990s, is in the process of selling the retail acreage to GMS Realty LLC, a Carlsbad-based company that owns and operates 3.5 million square feet of shopping centers, mostly in Southern California. GMS has agreements with Target and Kohl’s to anchor the Golden Valley Ranch shopping center, a $60 million to $70 million development expected to service residents in the immediate area as well as the communities of Acton and Agua Dulce to the north. “It’s going to be a lifestyle community center,” said Greg Whitney senior associate at CB Richard Ellis, who is marketing the retail space. “The balance of the first phase will be made up of promotional and soft goods retailers and a pedestrian-oriented food court and sit-down restaurants.” Until now, most of the development in the Santa Clarita Valley has been concentrated on the west side of the region, where Newhall Land and Farming Co. has designed a planned community of residences, commercial developments and retail. But the eastern end of the region has been growing steadily in recent years. “We think, with a bifurcated trade area with San Fernando Road as the western barrier, there’s already about 90,000 people within the trade area,” said Jeff Sterk, vice president of real estate development for GMS. New homes planned or under construction should expand that population by about 10 percent, he said. Along with the 500 homes that will be built in Golden Valley Ranch, Pardee Homes and other developers are under construction or have plans to add another 3,000 or 4,000 homes on the eastern end of the Valley. But retail development has lagged behind the steady pace of residential building. With the exception of a Costco, residents on the east side of town have to travel across Soledad Canyon Road to the nearest shopping centers. As the population has grown, that five-mile trip has gone from a short hop to what can be a half-hour excursion at certain times of the day. So sparse has retail development been that when the city of Santa Clarita conducted a study to determine whether a new center would pose competitive issues for existing retailers, it came up empty. “The concern of Golden Valley was, would a new shopping center drain businesses on Soledad Canyon Road?” said Jeff Lambert, director of planning and building services for Santa Clarita. “Because they’re putting in stores that don’t exist, it won’t be a concern.” Golden Valley, not currently within the boundaries of the city of Santa Clarita, is winding its way through an annexation process. When it is built, the shopping center will supply more than $1 million a year in tax revenues to the city. “Density up until recently hasn’t been there,” said Giuntini, “and there hasn’t been a location that’s appealing to major retailers. But the fact that we’re on the freeway and will be accessed by the new and improved Golden Valley Road makes this site desirable.” PacificUS plans to grade and build the infrastructure for the development and then sell lots to several merchant builders, who would then construct and market homes ranging from about $300,000 to $750,000. At current land prices, the company could never have afforded to set aside nearly 1,000 acres of open space, but PacSun bought the land when Southern California’s recession was at its peak and the parcel was in foreclosure. At first, the company intended to develop over 800 residential lots, but local residents opposed the scale of the project. At the same time, the escalating prices in the area made a smaller project financially viable. “Because values in Santa Clarita are so high (now), we could reduce the density and still get the return,” said Giuntini. Work on the development is awaiting the completion of the annexation process and final resolution to the agreement concerning open space. Homeowners have asked for certain assurances that the land will remain undeveloped, and an agreement is being completed, Lambert said. PacificUS hopes to have lots ready in the fall of 2003 and expects that homes will go on sale early in 2004. The retail development is expected to open in mid-2004.
