Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Center grabs Livermore space...

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 06 Jan 2003 13:27:06 -0500

From the January 3, 2003 print edition

Center grabs Livermore space Katherine Conrad One of Livermore's last empty retail corners
will be vacant no longer when construction begins this spring on a small shopping center
being developed by a company making its first foray into the East Bay.

Gregg Steele and Bruce Carlson, the founders and partners of Radius Development Group in
Larkspur, said the center they're
putting together on the 3.3-acre site is almost 70 percent leased, an indication of the
continuing strength of the retail market, especially when compared to office and
industrial products.

"Retail is a very bright spot in the development of real estate sectors. A lot of it is
because there's still new homes being built out
there (in Livermore). The community continues to provide affordable housing solutions as
opposed to Orinda and Lafayette or
Danville," Carlson said. "With new people moving in, there's an increasing need for
services to be provided."
Located at Las Positas Road and North Livermore Avenue near a Wal-Mart and The Home Depot,
the new center will consist of a 10,000-square-foot building and a 5,600-square-foot
building that will have an estimated value of $6 million when complete.

Radius Development is offering rental rates from $2.50 a square foot per month to $3.50.
Its tenants, so far, include Nextel, 3
Day Blinds, a financial institution, a dentist, an orthodontist, a dry cleaner, a nail
salon and a travel agency.
While the approval process through the city proceeded without a hitch, Carlson noted that
it still took almost a year. Escrow opened on the parcel a year ago, when Radius purchased
the site from 88 and Associates of San Francisco, and closed in mid-December.

"I've been in the business for a long, long time," said Steele, who has been a developer
for about 20 years. "It always takes longer than I think it will take."

He said one reason 3-year-old Radius was drawn to the site was its proximity to Interstate
580. That means the center will be insight of the thousands of commuters who drive from
the Central Valley to jobs in the East Bay and Silicon Valley.
"Interstate 580 is a major commute artery, so this center will offer both freeway retail
services as well as serving the neighborhood residents. It's an incredible retail site,"
he said. Livermore's Planning Manager Eric Brown said the site is the last one available
in Livermore that parallels the freeway and the most difficult to develop because it is
next to a hill. Most of the 12-acre lot, roughly 9 acres, has been designated as permanent
open space.

Brown said he was impressed with the care Radius took to design the center around the
hillside to ensure it did not run afoul of
ridgeline restrictions. It is also both aesthetically and architecturally pleasing, he
said, because the design plan includes a clock
tower, numerous trellises and plenty of landscaping.

"This was an empty corner and is the last to be developed because of a process of
elimination. Wal-Mart and Home Depot were both impacted by the hillside – they were
looking for a flat lot. But now that the retail area has heated up and has patronage,
other developers are willing to take the more marginal site," Brown said. "It is, in
effect, an unkempt corner.

"It will be nice to have commercial businesses in that corner."
Construction will begin in April and the buildings should be ready for occupancy next
fall. Carlson said the stores should be open by December or January 2004.

Reach Conrad at [email-masked] or 925-598-1427.

http://www.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2003/01/06/story3.html?t=printable

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