CHULA VISTA, CA-San Diego company Sudberry Properties has become one of the county's more active developers with more than six million sf of commercial space either already in place or in the pipeline. Most recently, the firm broke ground on Village Walk at EastLake, a 162,000-sf retail center, which sits on 13.25 acres. Sudberry is planning for a February 2007 completion date.The project is already 76% preleased and counts another 10% of space committed. Tenants on tap for the property include Borders Books, Pier One, Petco, Henry's Marketplace and Trader Joe's.Sudberry Properties is developing the site under its Sudberry Development Inc. banner. Village Walk is adjacent to Sudberry's existing property the 410,000-sf Eastlake Village Marketplace property, which is a community shopping center anchored by Lowe's and Target.Sudberry founder, Tom Sudberry, tells GlobeSt.com that Village Walk is different than its next door neighbor. "Village Walk will be more of a specialty retail center," Sudberry says. "We envision it as a place with ambience, where customers can drink coffee and hang out."The project is going up in a heated retail market, according to a recent Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial report. The report reveals that the Chula Vista submarket is among those San Diego County submarkets, which have "a limited supply of raw land and have turned to redevelopment as an alternative to meet the demand for retail."According to the report, the Chula Vista submarket is the county's fastest growing retail sector. More than 1.2 million sf of retail will be added to the submarket in 2006-2007, including four major retail centers.Late last year, the Village Walk project picked up a $51.5-million loan from Fremont Investment & Loan. At the time of the loan, Sarah R. Woodward, vice president & regional manager of Fremont's Irvine office, said, the deal with Sudberry was "Fremont's first loan under its new $1-billion retail loan program."The new loan program "targets funds for retail construction projects that are substantially preleased and sponsored by high-quality borrowers," Woodward added.