RETAILING : Vice President Bolts Newport’s SDC to Start Own Retail Development Firm

A top executive with Newport Beach-based SDC Development has left to start his own firm.

Tod W. Ridgeway, a vice president and development partner with SDC, has just opened Ridgeway Development Co. in Newport Beach. The new, one-executive company is specializing in neighborhood and community shopping centers in the range of 50,000 to 200,000 square feet in California and Nevada.

Ridgeway, 43, is well known in development circles for his work with SDC, a real estate development and asset management firm that has completed more then 250 shopping centers in the West since the 1950s. During the last 8 years, Ridgeway has put together 11 projects, including the Target-Albertson’s project in Aliso Viejo and the Lucky Center in Laguna Niguel.

Ridgeway said he had been mulling over starting his own company for more than a year.

Ridgeway Development Co. will work largely with supermarkets, drugstores and discount retailers as potential tenants.