WEST COVINA, CA-Eclipse Development Group of Irvine has broken ground for its 43-acre Heights at West Covina retail center, part of West Covina's 315-acre redevelopment of a former BKK landfill. The new shopping center will occupy a site at the northeast quadrant of Azusa Avenue and Amar Road.

According to Douglas Gray, president of Eclipse, tenants that have signed for space at the new center include a 132,000-sf Target and a 114,000-sf Home Depot, which will be the anchors of the center when it opens in October 2007. Additionally, the Heights at West Covina will feature a collection of sit-down and quick-service restaurants, soft goods stores, specialty retailers and personal service tenants.

The Heights development site lies along the southern border of the 315-acre former BKK landfill and will be adjacent to a new 18-hole municipal golf course. The center will also be located near a Big League Dreams Sports Park that will replicate some of the nation's landmark baseball stadiums like Yankee Stadium, Dodger Stadium and Wrigley Field.

The new shopping center is being designed by the Orange County office of Carter Burgess. Paul Bernard, an EVP with Eclipse Development, is handling the leasing for the project.

Privately held Eclipse was formed in 2002 by principals with more than 40 years of combined experience developing more than 10 million sf of shopping centers across the US. The Heights is the second high-profile brownfield development that Eclipse has been involved in, following the company's recently completed 400,000-sf Downey Landing Shopping Center on a former National Aeronautics and Space Administration site in Downey.