REAL ESTATE : Hopkins to Build Shops, Housing in Riverside Renewal

Downtown Riverside is getting a face-lift, and Hopkins Development Co. of Newport Beach is the latest Orange County developer to get a piece of the action.

Hopkins, a specialist in redevelopment projects, recently won permission from the city to build 14,000 square feet of shops over a newly constructed underground parking garage near the historic Mission Inn and the city’s convention center.

Hopkins is also building 84 apartments and for-sale flats in the one-square-block area along with Wilmore City Development.

It’s the first redevelopment project in downtown Riverside to include a large amount of housing. That is one of the latest trends in development in Southern California: putting housing closer to jobs, which makes the downtown neighborhoods livelier at night and cuts down on automobile traffic.