The Business Press
October 18, 1999
Adam Eventov

Chino Hills is alive with the sound of retail as one of its big box shopping centers prepares to nearly double in size.

The Costco/Eagle Shopping Center, soon to be named the Crossroads Marketplace at Chino Hills, plans to add 260,000 square feet of retail space by November 2000 and has inked three major merchants, according to project broker Nelson Wheeler, partner with Strategic Retail Advisors Corp. in Newport Beach.

Sport Chalet is hitting the slopes of Chino Hills with its 21st store slated to open in April. The sporting goods retailer from La Canada has started final grading on a 42,000 square foot store at the shopping center on Peyton Drive, southwest of the 60 and 71 freeways.

Sport Chalet could not be reached for comment.

Florida-based Lennar Partners, which is developing the $1.7 million Sport Chalet project, plans to lease it to the sporting-goods seller for $6 million for a period of more than 5 years, according to the developer.

Lennar is also building an additional 25,000 square feet of space for smaller retailers and a 15,000 square foot building for a Sav-on drugstore, which should both be completed by April, Wheeler said.

Lennar's plans for a third phase at the center include an additional 180,000 square feet of retail space.

The firm has signed a letter of intent with Bed, Bath and Beyond, a home furnishings retailer for 30,000 square feet in the project's third phase, said Lang Cottrell, vice president of Lennar Partners, a subsidiary of Miami-based LNR Property Corp.

Lennar is also in negotiations with four other major soft-goods retailers but would not identify them.

The center's location near a major freeway intersection is the chief reason the site is seeing so much growth, said Brad Umansky, retail specialist and vice president with Lee & Associates.

"It's the proximity to the 71 and 60 freeways and being able to serve Chino, Chino Hills and the Diamond Bar area," Umansky said.

The center's anchors - Costco Wholesale and Eagle Hardware - as well as projected residential growth along the 71 freeway make the center particularly attractive to retailers, he said.