CenterCal eyes Meridian Town Center construction start
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CenterCal Properties plans to start construction next summer on a 90-acre Meridian Town Center site on the north side of Fairview Avenue east of Eagle Road, Meridian.
“We anticipate the first tenants opening in late ‘11 or early ‘12,” Vice President of Development Craig Trottier said.
Three years ago, CenterCal announced plans for Meridian Town Center, to include more than 500,000 square feet of retail, entertainment, restaurant and office space. The California-based company secured financing and municipal approval, but the project was put on hold, Trottier said.
“We absolutely see there has been a turn in the economy. Things are improving and retailers once again are opening new stores,” he said. “We are in negotiations with numerous retail tenants and anticipate we will be able to start construction again next year.”
CenterCal is more careful than it was prior to the recession, which bodes well for the high-profile Eagle-Fairview site, Trottier said.
“We are picking the best sites in the best markets, and that’s where we think we have a real advantage,” he said. Idaho and the Boise area fared better in the recession than most locations in the West, and “as retailers look to the West for expansion, the bright spots are Idaho and Utah.”
CenterCal still has the financing it secured about three years ago for Meridian Town Center from the California State Teachers Retirement System, Trottier said. He estimated the project’s cost at $200 million.
Meridian Town Center is similar to a project in Farmington, Utah, where CenterCal has started building about 300,000 square feet of space slated to open next summer.
“We are in negotiations for many of the same tenants” in Farmington and Meridian, Trottier said.
He would not name businesses considering Meridian Town Center but said they include grocery stores, apparel and sporting goods stores, and other well-known national retailers.
Shops, restaurants, and a movie theater are planned in the project’s park-like “village” area, where office and residential space also may be built eventually, Trottier said. The village will take the most space at the development, which means big-box retail stores will not dominate, he said.
CenterCal, which also owns the large Treasure Valley Marketplace in north Nampa, plans to update its entitlements with the City of Meridian to reflect some changes in Meridian Town Center’s overall layout, and is discussing necessary roadway improvements with the Ada County Highway District and the Idaho Transportation Department, he said. Eagle Road is Idaho Highway 55.
City of Meridian Deputy Planning Director Pete Friedman said CenterCal has asked about the update process but has not submitted applications. The city about three years ago approved an annexation as well as a development agreement with attached concept plan. The owner-developer typically proposes changing the existing development agreement if he or she wants to modify the project, he said.
The 60-acre Kleiner Park is east of the CenterCal property and west of a planned extension of Records Road, Friedman said. CenterCal says Meridian Town Center would be integrated with Kleiner Park.
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