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| Randall Lewis |
UPLAND, CA – In a period of time when many retail owners and developers are either holding still or cancelling their plans, Lewis Retail Centers, one of the largest shopping center developers in California and Nevada with 34 dynamic existing centers and more than 10 new projects currently underway, continues to move forward with strong financial investments.
The investments include opening a new retail center, conducting new tenant construction, enhancing existing centers and conducting programs that give back to the community, according to Randall Lewis, Executive Vice President, Marketing for the Lewis Group of Companies.
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| The Marketplace at Calimesa, CA |
Grand Opening and New Tenant ConstructionLewis Retail Centers has announced the Grand Opening of The MarketPlace at Calimesa, a 105,000 square-foot center in the rapidly developing Riverside County city of Calimesa, CA, anchored by a new Stater Bros. Market.
Starbucks and Del Taco have also opened and will be followed shortly by the openings of Cold Stone Creamery, Jack in the Box, Modern Nails, Skin Solutions Aesthetics, and Supercuts.
“Even during this period, the demand for close-in grocery and casual food have brought an immediate response from the growing number of residents living in this area,” notes Lewis.
“In fact, The Marketplace at Calimesa has no similar competition for approximately four miles, and the community is thankful we were able to move forward this quickly.”
One of the company’s strategies from the beginning has been to identify growing residential populations that have no retail, or are under-retailed, so that it can deliver exactly what the community and the cities in which the firm works desire, adds Lewis.
“The successful results continue to speak for themselves: the new center’s Facebook page received more than 150 extremely positive engagements in response to the opening of the first tenant here.”
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| Damonte Ranch Town Center, Reno, NV |
In a similar situation, Lewis Retail Centers has begun construction on a Safeway at Damonte Ranch Town Center in Reno, Nevada.The new 62,000 square-foot Safeway will become the third anchor of that center with Home Depot and RC Willey. Other tenants at the center include CVS, McDonald’s, Twisted Fork and Mountain America Credit Union. Grand opening of the Safeway is anticipated in Spring of 2021.
“In this market, Lewis Retail Centers has a center with nearly 19,500 households within a three-mile radius,” Lewis says. “Again, we are meeting demand precisely where the residential population is growing.”
Existing Center UpgradesLewis Retail Centers has also begun an upgrade to its flagship 850,000 square-foot Eastvale Gateway in Eastvale, California, including a modernization of its appearance with a repaint of the entire center.
“Our commitment to our tenants, the customers in our communities, and to our city leaders, is one of active management to ensure that each of our centers provides an ever-evolving positive experience,” Lewis explains. “And for us, upgrading our centers in 2020 may be of even greater importance than at other times.”
With this intention, Lewis Retail Centers also recently renovated its Regency Park Plaza in Vacaville, California, by adding new high efficiency LED lights in the parking area and an updated monument sign with LED panels, as well as repainting the exterior of the center, adding new colored awnings and aluminum louvers for a modernized appearance, and enhancing the centers’ columns with new architectural building lights.
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| The 850,000 square-foot Eastvale Gateway in Eastvale, CA |
Community ParticipationTo assist the communities in which Lewis Retail Centers operates, the company has partnered with Lifestream Blood Bank to host 49 blood drives at 13 of its shopping centers between September and December of 2020.
LifeStream has served the Inland Empire and surrounding areas since 1951 providing lifesaving blood products and services to more than 80 Southern California hospitals and medical facilities.Fresh Amenity for the Future
With its eye on the future of the centers, Lewis Retail Centers has also added electric car charging stations to several of its centers and is continuing to add additional charging stations in 2021.
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| Electric car charging stations |
“While electric charging stations have become somewhat expected at large regional shopping centers, Lewis Retail Centers is one of the first retail owners to install these stations at grocery-anchored centers,” Lewis points out.“With our investment in these charging stations, we’re pulling traffic to our tenants by creating an amenity for customers that both attracts them to the center and then extends their length-of-stay.
About the Lewis Group of Companies
Lewis Retail Centers is part of the Lewis Group of Companies. The Lewis Group of Companies is one of the nation’s largest privately held real estate development companies.
The Lewis Group focuses on developing mixed-use planned communities and residential subdivisions in California and Nevada, as well as building and owning rental communities, shopping centers, and office and industrial parks.
Established in 1955, the firm is headquartered in Upland, California.
To date, the Lewis Group of Companies has built more than 60,000 residential homes and apartments, and has developed 14.5 million square feet of retail, office and industrial product.
CONTACTS:
Alex Caswell/Judy Brower Fancher
Brower Group
(949) 438-6262
