Rancho P.V. : Work on 2 Projects Begins

Work has begun on two major projects--a housing development and a shopping center--on historic properties in the city.

Construction of Wallace Estates, a $50-million community of 82 homes, is under way on 24 acres along Highridge Road. For decades, the area was known to amateur radio operators around the world as W6AM, the ham radio home of Don C. Wallace. Wallace talked to hundreds of thousands of radio buffs for 40 years until his death two years ago at 86.

The first phase of the development, 15 one- and two-story homes with prices starting at $595,000, is to be finished next spring. A park commemorating Wallace has been proposed but is contingent upon a nonprofit foundation providing an unspecified amount of money to operate it.

The shopping center, the Terrace at South Bay, is an $18.6-million reconstruction of Harbor Heights, which was built on a hillside 30 years ago as the first major shopping center on the Peninsula section of Western Avenue.

The existing building will be remodeled, the hillside will be terraced and two buildings will be added. The refurbished center, to be completed next June, will contain 60 stores and a five-screen movie complex.