Swedish Firm to Build Shops, Inn at Bonsall
The little North County community of Bonsall is about to add a downtown to its uptown with a proposal by a Swedish development firm to build a Spanish-styled commercial village at the intersection of California 76 and Mission Road.
The 24-acre complex will feature a movie theater and a 60-room motel that the developer prefers to call a “country inn.”
The development will be by far the largest commercial activity in Bonsall, which today is highlighted by a small shopping center featuring a pizza parlor, a convenience market, a post office, a dentist, a real estate office, a doughnut shop and a cocktail lounge.
The new project, to be called River Village San Luis Rey, is proposed by CentrumInvest, a Stockholm-based developer of shopping centers and hotels in Scandinavia and mainland Europe. This will be its first project in the United States, and is being developed on its behalf by the Neville Co. of San Diego.
Project manager Andrew Wright said construction should begin by fall and be completed within a year. The area is zoned for commercial use, and the project has won the support of the Bonsall Planning Group.
“The reaction has been very favorable. It will be a nice addition to our community,” said planning group chairman Dominic Savoca.
Not only will the project provide a new commercial hub along California 76 between Oceanside and Interstate 15, but it will also serve to improve driving conditions through the intersection, now a “Y” configuration in which westbound motorists along California 76 must stop and negotiate a left-hand turn to continue along the same route.
The junction will be reconstructed as a “T” intersection, with California 76 being the through road, and a signal light governing turns onto northbound Mission Road. The changes were ordered by both the county and the state Department of Transportation as a condition of developing the site.
The two-story project will provide 150,000 square feet of commercial, office, retail and restaurant space.
