Then Mayor Steve DeBrum remembers in 2015 walking up to booths manned by representatives of restaurant chains, retailers, and entertainment venues at the International Council of Shopping Centers convention in Las Vegas.
It is the annual go-to place for cities in the hunt for new dining and retail options. The goal is getting their attention and then lure them into taking a serious look at a community and then — if all goes well — landing a catch to boost the local economy.
“I’d introduce myself as being from Manteca and say I’d want to tell them about Manteca,” DeBrum said.
They’d typically stop him; flip open a laptop, take a quick look at data, and give him almost carbon copy replies: You need 100,000 residents and then we’ll talk.
Elected Manteca leaders in 2021 at the same convention during the pandemic said the private sector was clearly skittish about doing any expansion.
Two years later, Manteca started piquing interest but the numbers most investors, retailers, and chain restaurants were looking for weren’t there.
It was a different story in 2025 when Councilman Mike Morowit approached those manning booths at the most recent convention that is billed as one of the world’s largest events of its kind as a way to play matchmaker, if you will, between cities and retail/restaurant/entertainment concerns.
At the mere mention of Manteca, Morowit indicated virtually everyone he approached quickly replied, “we know about Manteca.”
It’s not by chance or people clamoring for more restaurants and retailers as to why Hobby Lobby is coming to Manteca, IKEA located a design center here or the likes of specialty retailers such as Flip Flop Shops have inked a deal to open a location at Orchard Valley.
Manteca is within several thousand of crossing over the 100,000 population mark.
That’s a game changer.
But perhaps even bigger is what many people seem to moan and groan about: Manteca is positioned with basic infrastructure to keep growing by 800 to 1,400 housing units annually for the foreseeable future.
Toss in a subregion market that includes Lathrop that essentially joins Manteca at the hip, and now you’re talking about a number of consumers pushing 160,000 within a 10 to 15 minute drive.
And many of those consumers have household incomes north of $120,000 and growing.
Clearly growth is doing what it was long promised to do — attract more shopping and dining options.
And it’s not just the chains.
More and more people wanting to start mom and pop restaurants and stores are looking at Manteca.
A case in point, is the Tracy couple that saw investing in an Altitude Trampoline they opened in Manteca two months ago as a better move than doing so in Tracy.
The question in everyone’s
mind: What about Winco
of a Trader Joe’s store?
Manteca after going 26 years without opening a new grocery store per se — although Costco did in 2008, is now on the verge of opening two later this year.
The city’s third Save Mart and second Food-4-Less are anchoring two new shopping centers are currently under construction.
City officials — and those owning commercial property entitled or otherwise — confirm representatives from WinCo and Trader Joe’s have made inquiries.
Each store has their own criteria and space needs.
They also are sensitive to the economy, existing competition, and other factors that drive their expansion and store location plans.
The biggest holdup on WinCo doing more than talk is being able to buy land to build their own store rather than lease space.
They also are driven by land price.
That means they need a willing seller at a favorable price with land in acceptable locations.
And that is likely to be someone planning to create a new shopping center and is willing to sell the land to WinCo.
In such cases, it is the lease of junior anchors in the in-line space and offer users that makes a solid return on their investment.
There are three other shopping centers in various stages of the entitlement process.
One is where the new 122-room, four story Woodsprings Suites is being built on the northeast corner of Atherton Drive and Airport Way. It does not include space for a grocery store.
The other two are separate developments on the southwest and southeast corners of the Airport Way/Louise Avenue intersection.
The one on the southwest corner —The Village at Ticino — has been approved with a grocery store anchor.
And it has been approved with a novel built in for the entitlement process — the grocer anchor space, while targeting a 40,000 square-foot tenant, can shrink to 20,000 square feet or expand to 80,000 square feet.
That gives the developer maximum flexibility in pursuing a supermarket.
The 20,000 square feet is aimed at specialty grocers such as Trader Joe’s.
The 40,000 square feet is aimed at traditional grocers like a Save Mart.
The 80,000 square feet is aimed at discount grocers like WinCo.
As an added bonus, the developer is willing to lease or sell all parcels in the project with the exception of the planned hotel and the gas station/convenience store/car wash combo.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
