Shops at Saucon Valley To Break Ground 50% Preleased

ALLENTOWN, PA-Phase I of Shops at Saucon Valley, a 600,000-sf retail/entertainment center in Upper Saucon Township, will break ground this month. The developer of the lifestyle shopping venue is a joint-venture partnership between Memphis-based Poag & McEwen and Columbus, OH-based Stanbery Development.

Completion of the 420,000-sf first phase is scheduled for August 2006. "Phase II will open a year later," Terry McEwen, president of Poag & McEwen, tells GlobeSt.com. He says the opening phase will be 50% leased at groundbreaking. "At that time, we'll announce the names of the tenants," he says, acknowledging that an 18-screen, 73,000-sf, 4,250-seat movie theater by Dallas-based Rave Motion Pictures will anchor the entertainment area of Phase I.

"Like the typical Poag & McEwen lifestyle centers, this will have national specialty shops and restaurants," McEwen adds. Stanbery lists the following among "targeted retailers" for the center: Talbot's, Chico's, Ann Taylor Loft, Jos. A. Bank, Children's Place, William Sonoma, Bombay and Coldwater Creek.

Shops at Saucon Valley is among six Poag & McEwen lifestyle centers, aggregating nearly 3.78 million sf, that are in pre-development stages and scheduled to open in or before 2007 at a total investment of $1 billion. The others range from 350,000 sf to 850,000 sf and are in Manteca and Corona, CA; Loveland, CO; South Windsor, CT; and Houston.

McEwen declined to disclose the development cost of the Saucon Valley project. On condition of anonymity, a developer of lifestyle and hybrid shopping centers in Eastern Pennsylvania tells GlobeSt.com the cost for the full development is probably "close to $100 per sf, or between $50 million and $60 million." Of rental rates, which McEwen also declined to disclose, this source says they probably range between $15 per sf and $19 per sf.