$100-Million Center Started in Camarillo : Four-Story, 450-Room Hotel to Be Part of Mixed-Use Development
Construction has begun on Leonard Camarillo Center, a $100-million project expected to rank among the largest mixed-use developments in Ventura County.
Owned and developed by the Leonard family, pioneer landowners in that region, the 91.3-acre center is a project of the Pepper Tree Development Co., a Leonard family corporation. It is located south of, and fronting, the Ventura (101) Freeway, east of Las Posas Road, Camarillo.
Leonard Camarillo Center will offer 1.36 million square feet of office, retail, support commercial, research-and-development uses, and will be anchored by a four-story, 450-room hotel with two restaurants and a 10,000-square-foot banquet room.
The center’s design concept by Langdon Wilson Mumper Architects is themed to the Spanish heritage of the city of Camarillo and places the buildings in clusters on four large landscaped courtyards, with the project’s focal point being a center curt, the largest of the four open spaces.
Ground-floor shops and other retail activity surrounding the center court will augment the hotel and restaurants in providing for day and nighttime activity. Office space will rise three stories above the retail spaces.
The three other courtyard areas have been earmarked for research-and-development facilities and also will reflect a Spanish-themed architectural continuity.
When completed, the Leonard Camarillo Center will feature 24 buildings ranging from one to four stories and will be the only mixed-use center in the area with a hotel and state-of-the-art fiber optics capabilities. Building sites will accommodate structures ranging from 20,000 to 300,000 square feet.
In addition to Langdon Wilson Mumper, the Leonard Camarillo project team members include Emmet L. Wemple & Associates, Costa Mesa, landscape architect; Ramseyer & Associates, Ventura, civil engineer; Koll Construction Co., Los Angeles, general contractor, and Coldwell Banker, Ventura, exclusive leasing agent.
Financing is being provided through California Federal Savings & Loan Assn.
