Buyers Plan 160,000-SF Inland Retail Site

MENIFEE, CA-Orange County-based Rancho Plaza LLC and Laguna Beach Properties LLC of Hayward have bought 16.4 acres for $7.8 million and plan to build a 160,000-sf retail center with a hotel and a gas station, according to Grubb & Ellis. The development site is at the northeast corner of the I-215 Freeway and Newport Road, one of the busiest intersections in this area and is the last undeveloped corner parcel on the eastern side of the freeway.The buyers bought the land from Diamond Brothers Five Partnership LP of Menifee, with Michelle Schierberl, Ian Brown and Walter Pagel of the Newport Beach office of Grubb & Ellis representing the buyer. In addition, the buyer has named Brown and Pagel as leasing agents for the development.The property is the third freeway-adjacent corner parcel to sell for retail development in the Menifee-Sun City area in the past several months, an indication that retail development is moving into the area from the cities of Temecula and Murrieta to the south of Menifee, Schierberl tells GlobeSt.com.She says the Menifee-Sun City area, one of the most active centers of new home construction in the Inland Empire, is the next logical place for retail development in light of all the new home construction.Schierberl tells GlobeSt.com that Laguna Beach Properties will develop the gas station and the hotel, with Rancho Plaza to develop the 160,000 sf of retail space. The gas station developer has built several other stations in Southwest Riverside County.Seller Diamond Bros. owns of the nearby 36-hole Menifee Lakes championship golf course and was interested in selling to a developer who would provide a hotel, Schierberl notes. The project is slated to break ground in the first quarter of 2006.