Community Attracts $25M Retail Center, Auto Dealership

VALENCIA, CA-A&B Properties Inc. of Honolulu plans a $25-million, 101,700-sf shopping center at Centre Pointe Business Park and Irvine-based Snyder Langston has started construction of a new $15-million Mercedes Benz dealership as Valencia continues to develop more retail and service projects for its growing population.

A&B, the real estate subsidiary of publicly held Alexander & Baldwin Inc., will develop its project in partnership with Intertex Properties on a 10.2-acre parcel within the 240-acre Centre Pointe park. Irvine-based Snyder Langston is building the $15-million auto dealership on a 3.6-acre site at 23355 Valencia Blvd. as the general contractor for Sky Blue LLC.The A&B site is adjacent to Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores that are under construction and is at the intersection of two of the busiest streets in Valencia, Soledad Canyon Road and Golden Valley Road. The center is planned to have three main buildings and two pad sites, with construction expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2005 and be completed in 12 months. The Centre Pointe Marketplace will be A&B's fourth real estate investment with Valencia-based Intertex and its fifth in the Santa Clarita Valley. The others with Intertex are the 63,000-sf Westridge Executive Plaza office building and two projects still in the planning stages, the 62,000-sf Crossroads Plaza retail center and the 85,000-sf Rye Canyon Plaza office building. A&B Properties CEO Stanley M. Kuriyama says that the firm's investment and development focus remains on Hawaii, but the Valencia projects diversify its portfolio and help the company's bottom line. A&B typically looks for local partners in such projects, says SVP Michael G. Wright, who heads the firm's real estate acquisitions and investments. A&B bought the land for its latest Valencia project on April 21 from Spirit Properties.In the $15-million auto dealership project, the Automotive Building Group of Snyder Langston has broken ground on Mercedes Benz Valencia, a 44,000-sf dealership that will include a 28,000-sf showroom, administrative offices and 35-service bays. Completion is scheduled for January 2006.Fred Wallitsch, Snyder Langston's senior project executive, notes that the firm assisted Mercedes Benz USA in its land acquisition from Newhall Land & Farming and will be providing turn-key project management. The dealership is being designed by Irvine-based LPA. It will be constructed on a foundation of pour-in-place concrete, with a structural system of steel with metal decking and an exterior finished in plaster over masonry.