A 180,000-sf Sears Grand store, the third in the company's newopen-air format to open in the country, will anchor the center.Sears will join other national retailers like CompUSA and OrthoMattress at Foothill Crossing, which O&S is developing on a50-acre site immediately south of Victoria Gardens. Both O&Sand Rancho Cucamonga city officials attribute the quick leasing atthe center to the presence of Victoria Gardens, which they describeas a catalyst for other retail development near the 147-acreVictoria Gardens site.

"Victoria Gardens has really helped a lot," says Austin BettarJr., leasing director for O&S. "If Victoria Gardens were notgoing to happen, then the tenants that we have landed wouldprobably not have as much interest in this location." Both FoothillCrossing and Victoria Gardens occupy land that lay vacant andundeveloped for many years, notes Linda Daniels, redevelopmentdirector for the city of Rancho Cucamonga. She tells GSR that thenew retail developments there have been made possible by streetsand other infrastructure improvements being provided by the city.After the infrastructure got under way, she tells GSR, "Propertyvalues shot up and developers were able to come in, but theycouldn't afford to come in before that because they couldn't do theinfrastructure themselves."

O&S owns 50 acres at the Foothill Crossing site, but Bettarpoints out that only 33 acres is being developed because theremaining 17 acres falls under an easement to Southern CaliforniaEdison Co. The main entrance to Foothill Crossing faces VictoriaGardens near Interstate 15 at Foothill Boulevard.