EAST PALMDALE IN FOR BOOM RETAIL HUB FIRST OF 3; STARBUCKS-CHILI'S CENTER TO OPEN IN 6 MONTHS.

Byline: JIM SKEEN Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- A shopping center that will bring a Starbucks and a Chili's restaurant is being hailed as a harbinger of a retail development boom on Palmdale's east side.

Developer Shane Astani and city officials gathered at Avenue S and 47th Street East on Tuesday morning to mark the start of Park Plaza, which will contain more than 60,000 square feet of retail and office space and is expected to be completed in about six months.

The development team and city officials said the shopping center will help spur interest in Palmdale's east side, an area they said has been strangely neglected by retailers given its population and income base.

``We convinced them, over a long period, that most of our residents live on the east side,'' said Mayor Pro Tem Mike Dispenza. ``They need services so they don't have to drive across town. Our goal is to continue to build here until it's as good as anywhere in the Antelope Valley.''

The project's design features Mediterranean-style architecture with tile roofs, exterior stucco and wainscot veneers, tower elements, cornice treatments and awnings. The building colors are earth tones with accent colors on awnings and other elements.

The Chili's restaurant will occupy just over 6,100 square feet. The restaurant, the second one for the chain in Palmdale, will employ between 120 and 140 people, said Chili's representative Jeff Press.

The restaurant will seat between 225 and 250 people, Press said.

The Starbucks, which will be Palmdale's fourth, but only the first on the city's east side, will cover 1,800 square feet. Like the other three local Starbucks, it will have drive-through service.

Other buildings planned as part of the complex include a 9,785-square-foot, single-story, multiple-tenant retail building, and three two-story retail buildings that would total 24,210 square feet of retail and restaurant space on the ground floor and 21,500 square feet of professional office space on the upper floors.

A Subway sandwich shop is also slated to be part of the project.

NAI Capital, Astani's partner on the Park Plaza project, plans to open a regional office in the center, said Bert Abel, the company's executive vice president in charge of the north Los Angeles County region.

Among the statistics the development team is using to lure in tenants is the fact that more than 65,000 people live within three miles of the center. The average household income is over $60,000 a year.

``One of the crosses we had to bear was when we went to people and said `east Palmdale,' they said `No, no, no. West Palmdale,''' Abel said. ``We had to show people there's a lot of homes here.''

In addition to the Park Plaza project, NAI Capital is working on an even bigger east side project: a 433,000-square-foot shopping center at Palmdale Boulevard and 40th Street East. The company is in talks with movie theater chain Cinemark about being the center's lead anchor business, Abel said.

The concept for the center involves mid-size retailers -- stores in the 25,000- to 50,000- square-foot range. Linens, sporting goods, pet supplies and electronics stores are examples of the types that would fit that size range, Abel said.

Another major project in the works for Palmdale's east side is a shopping center at the northwest corner of Avenue R and 47th Street East that would be anchored by a Target store and a Home Depot. The center will have over 500,000 square feet of space spread out in 17 buildings on an approximately 50-acre site.

The center is being proposed by Hopkins Real Estate Group, an Irvine-based company that has worked on dozens of retail centers throughout Southern California, including the SouthBay Pavilion center, which includes a Target store.

The Avenue R and 47th Street East intersection is poised to turn into a major retail center. In addition to the Hopkins project, there are three other projects proposed: a center anchored by a Rite Aid drug store on the southeast corner, a Vallarta supermarket on the northeast corner, and a small center with a Tom's hamburger restaurant on the southwest corner.

james.skeen@dailynews

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