Manteca’s family entertainment zone grabbed a lot of attention this week in Las Vegas at the largest gathering of retailers, restaurants, and commercial center developers in the western United States.
City leadership manned a booth at the International Council of Shopping Center event where the interest level was even stronger than in previous years.
“People known about Manteca,” Mayor Gary Singh said, thanks to it being on the cusp of 100,000 residents, having continued sustained growth, and being at the center of a 25-mile sub-region market of 800,000 consumers.
“Now it is all about making the numbers work,” Singh added.
And Manteca wasn’t just spreading the word about the potential of the 157-acre family entertainment zone (FEZ) as well other city-owned zoned commercial property on Atherton Drive west of Living Spaces and on Daniels Street adjacent to the Sizzler and Staybridge Suites.
They had material — and were well-versed — regarding opportunities at five shopping centers either under construction or targeted to break ground in the next two years.
That includes the new 181,000 square-foot Walmart Supercenter with 11 additional retail and dining spaces at Atherton and Main as well as the second phase of Manteca Crossing on the east side of Airport Way at Atherton Drive.
Over the years, contacts made at ICCS gatherings have resulted in Manteca landing large retailers as well as restaurants and even commercial shopping center developers.
“The FEZ is a long-term project,” Singh said.
The city over the years has put together components that not only provides it with access via the new McKinley Avenue interchange as well as the Airport Way interchange, but they finished extending Daniels Street complete with infrastructure.
Both streets and infrastructure are stubbed at three cross intersections with traffic signals already in place to make a large chunk of the 157 acre site shovel ready.
That, in itself, can be an advantage as it shortens development time frames.
The FEZ is almost three times larger than the 54-acre Orchard Valley shopping center.
“We not just going to take the first project that comes along,” Singh said.
The city can do that because they own the land.
And they want to be picky as they are striving to make the FEZ as Internet commerce resistant as possible with a strong mixture of restaurants, recreation/entertainment style endeavors, and hotels.
The concept of the FEZ was launched by the city in 2010, shortly after the decision was made to pursue an indoor water park report.
The 157 acres set aside for the FEZ was once secured by the city for wastewater treatment plant expansion. It is no longer needed for that purpose due to technology that now allows wastewater to be treated and returned to the San Joaquin River.
Great Wolf and Big League Dreams are also built on former wastewater treatment plant land.
The two major draws — plus the growing 20-mile consumer market — are being used to market the FEZ to developers.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
