PALMDALE RETAILERS SPREADING EAST AREA DEVELOPING FAST.

Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- A top local shopping center developer predicts commercial development will start shifting to outlying areas of the Antelope Valley and also land around the new Palmdale hospital.

Dan Otter, whose recent centers include Sierra Commons and Amargosa Commons on 10th Street West in Palmdale, said many national retailers already have stores in central Lancaster and Palmdale, so more will be looking at markets like east Palmdale.

``Pretty much all the categories in retail are represented here and in some cases two deep,'' Otter said. ``We're beginning to reach a saturation point. ... You're seeing projects starting to go to subregional markets.''

In east Palmdale at 47th Street East and Avenue S, Wal-Mart is expanding a store into a Wal-Mart Supercenter that sells groceries, a Lowe's home-improvement store opened in 2005, and a new shopping center is under construction and will include a Chili's restaurant and a Starbucks coffee shop.

Home Depot and Target executives are known to be examining the area as well, Otter said.

Plans are under way for medical office buildings covering hundreds of thousands of square feet -- and some of the buildings are already under construction -- around the site where Palmdale Regional Medical Center is being built, Otter said. The hospital is expected to open in late 2007.

``Not all of those projects will get built, but a lot of it will, and it will have a tremendous impact on the market,'' Otter said.

Otter was a speaker Tuesday at an Antelope Valley Board of Trade luncheon. Danny Roberts, Palmdale Community Redevelopment Agency assistant executive director, and Keith Geiger, Antelope Valley Mall general manager, also spoke on retail developments in Palmdale.

``Not all of those projects will get built, but a lot of it will, and it will have a tremendous impact on the market,'' Otter said.

Otter's Sierra Commons center involves the redevelopment of a vacant former Kmart store, part of which is now occupied by a Wickes Furniture store. Other businesses in Sierra Commons will include a Michaels craft store, a BevMo wine and liquor store, and a shop of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf shop.

Geiger said the 16-year-old, 135-store mall has never been busier, with all of its stores occupied or being remodeled and a 16-screen movie theater expected to open in November.

``We have a lot of demand from national retailers and from mom-and-pop operators,'' Geiger said of the mall.

The mall, with a $23 million renovation completed this summer, is to get a BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse and a Romi's restaurant near the new theater, as well as Breaktime Billiards, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and The Body Shop stores inside the mall.

Roberts, who has worked for Palmdale's redevelopment agency since 1990, said much of the work of attracting new stores and restaurants is in convincing executives that Antelope Valley residents will support their businesses.

``I believe a lot of retailers don't fully appreciate the purchasing power that residents of Palmdale have.''

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Photo:

An earth mover works alongside a building at the Sierra Commons shopping center that is under construction.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer