Swedish Firm to Create Rural Commercial Village
Seventy-seven years after Danes created Solvang, more or less in the image of old Copenhagen, a Swedish developer is creating River Village--in the image of old Santa Barbara.
River Village, a rural center for stores, professional services and cinema, is planned for a 24-acre site at California 76 and Mission Road in Bonsall, about 5 miles from Fallbrook and 11 miles inland from Oceanside.
The $25-million project in San Diego County will be the first U.S. development for CentrumInvest, a Swedish-based developer of malls, hotels and restaurants. The Swedish firm also has projects in Finland, Ireland and Norway.
Construction is scheduled to start next month, with completion in September, 1989.
Peter J. Odlund, vice president of CentrumInvest, said care has been taken to confer with local property owners to assure that the proposed village will enhance the area, set in the coastal hills of the San Luis Rey Valley.
He said his team had toured many sites throughout the country before deciding on the rural concept for River Village.
Merchants in the immediate area plan to become part of the new project, he added, operating a variety of stores and services to fit the needs of surrounding communities. The area includes ranches, farms, estates, thoroughbred horse training centers and golf courses.
The village’s tree-lined main thoroughfare will have landscaped promenades, fronted on both sides by one- and two-story buildings, a plaza with a tower and ample street parking.
River Village’s project manager is Andrew Wright of the Neville Co., a San Diego-based project management firm. He said the center will have more than 70 shops, restaurants and sidewalk cafes designed in the Spanish-Colonial style reminiscent of Santa Barbara architecture during the 1920s and 1930s.
The plan includes about 32,000 square feet for convenience services, nearly 24,000 square feet for food services, 27,000 square feet for fashion boutiques and shops, more than 36,000 square feet for specialty stores, a 23,500-square-foot sixplex cinema and 20,000 square feet of office space.
Envisioning the village’s use, Robert K. Leste, a national leasing specialist who has joined the River Village marketing team said, “There’s really no community center for this part of north San Diego County now.”
Andrew Herbruck, Del Mar, is the conceptual designer. Architects/Larson/Carpenter, San Diego, are project designers and Nowell-Thompson & Associates, San Diego, are landscape architects. Ninteman Construction, San Diego, is general contractor.
