Developers Buy Land for 2 Valencia Shopping Centers

Two developers bought shopping center sites in Valencia from Newhall Land & Farming Co. recently as the building of retail properties continues in response to residential development in the Santa Clarita Valley.

The Los Angeles office of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Regency Centers bought 10.9 acres at Valencia Boulevard and Old Road, and Newport Beach-based Hopkins Real Estate Group bought 7.39 acres at the northeast corner of Copper Hill Drive and Newhall Ranch Road.

Regency plans to build a 100,000-square-foot center called Westridge Village that is scheduled to open in summer 2003. It will be anchored by a 50,000-square-foot Albertson’s supermarket, said Mac Chandler, a vice president at Regency.

Hopkins will build a 70,000-square-foot center called Highridge Crossing that is slated to open in spring 2003 and is 50% leased, said Ray Bayat of Grubb & Ellis, who represented Hopkins and Newhall Land in the land sale along with Mitch Bayat, Bert Abel and John Cserkuti.

With its latest land purchase, Hopkins is developing four Valencia shopping centers totaling 220,000 square feet on approximately 24 acres, said Larry Weese, a Hopkins senior vice president. He said the firm is negotiating to buy land for a fifth Valencia center.

Terms of the Regency purchase, which was negotiated directly between Chandler of Regency and Robert A. Mayhew of Newhall Land, were not disclosed.

Hopkins paid $4.2 million for its parcel, Grubb & Ellis said.

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Bob Howard