Lewis Plans 300,000-SF Retail Center

The 300,000-sf Sierra Lakes Marketplace will be near the Sierra Avenue interchange of the recently opened 210 (Foothill) Freeway, according to Lewis. It also will be near the 2,100-home Sierra Lakes development and Sierra Lakes Golf Course, an $8-million, 18-hole championship golf layout and clubhouse. The master plan for the area includes the development of a business park and corporate center in rapidly growing North Fontana. Lewis hopes to break ground for the Sierra Lakes shopping center this year and to complete it in 2004.

The developer cites population statistics showing that nearly 120,000 people lived within three miles of the site and that the population within that radius will increase to more than 130,000 by 2006. During those same years, the population is expected to increase from nearly 263,000 to 288,000 within a five-mile radius and from 709,000 to 760,000 within 10 miles. Average household incomes within the area are upward of $50,000, Lewis adds.

The Upland company is one of the largest retail and apartment developers in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, with about three million sf of retail space scheduled to break ground in the next 18 months. The developments include the planned 1.3-million-sf Victoria Gardens, a regional mall in Rancho Cucamonga in a partnership with Forest City Development of Cleveland.

More than $20 million of infrastructure improvements are under way at the site of the $200-million mall at the I-15 Freeway and Foothill Boulevard, with the mall scheduled to open in October 2004. In addition to the shopping center, the Victoria Gardens project will include a 20-acre apartment site. Lewis is one of a number of retail builders to venture into Fontana lately, according to city documents showing there are six new retail centers undergoing entitlement that will be constructed near new neighborhoods and along the I-15 freeway.