Seven Years After - Still No Activity on Elk Grove Promenade-Outlet Collections

July 25, 2015 | By most accounts, today is the seventh anniversary of the day construction of what was called the Elk Grove Prome...



July 25, 2015 |

By most accounts, today is the seventh anniversary of the day construction of what was called the Elk Grove Promenade came to an abrupt halt.

Since that time, the property has changed hands from General Growth Property to its current owner Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC). We have seen a former Elk Grove economic development director make numerous trips to Las Vegas conventions to hawk the property as a great place to do business to no avail.

We have seen HHC get approval to downsize the shopping center's footprint by a third, the conversion to a supposed high-end-retailer outlet mall with a myriad of beautiful schematic drawings. We saw the City of Elk Grove get tied up in litigation over that conversion done in the name of jump-starting development.

Nonetheless, despite all the saber rattling, not one bit of dirt has been moved nor any of the promised demolition to downsize the facility has been initiated. So many promises from Mayor Gary Davis, like the center would be open by 2015 (see video from February, 2014 below), so many rosy words spoken by HHC.

And still nothing.

But let's not lose hope because there is a silver lining in all this gloom as it relates to the city's herculean efforts to rebrand the shopping center while simultaneously transforming Elk Grove into a tourist destination. The Elk Grove Promenade has made its way to the Encyclopedia of Forlorn Places.

The EOFP described Elk Grove and the mouth-balled shopping center saying "The Elk Grove Promenade is at the southern edge of the sprawl of track homes and strip malls extending from Sacramento that was built from the 1980s until the market collapsed."

The sad aspect of all of these various developments is our City Councilmen could really hold the developers feet to the fire and make our community a great place to live. Instead to bend to the wishes of the developers, of course after receiving their generous campaign contributions, and agree to the lowest common denominator.  

We're guessing this isn't the type of list the city wanted to land on when it developed its ongoing #InElkGrove tourist promotion. Council men, you have the power to make Elk Grove a great community - do you have the courage to stand for the people or will you continue to be lapdogs for developers?

As for the Promenade-Outlet Collection - better luck next year. 





Post a Comment Default Comments

8 comments

Anonymous said...

Something else I miss seeing are the Civic Center design plans and especially the pictures by Zaha Hadid architects that were once posted on a regular basis. Has Zaha Hadid also been transferred to that big stack of studies in the storage units? Loved those pictures...

Delta Shores said...

I remember when Gary Davis flew to Texas to "light a fire" under HHC to get the mall started. It's Grow Time!

Anonymous said...

Think that culminated in a flame-out....

Anonymous said...

Hey, this is an example of Elk Grove Thriving!

Someone who used to care said...

Yeah! I remember that. Gary Davis was going to Texas to dictate to the Howard Hughes Corp. how they needed to get off their collective butts and get this mall back on track.

How'd that work out?

I think they're a bit behind the mayor's schedule.

Just watch the attached video. More unkept promises and pipe dreams from this council and its leader.

We have no confidence in our council and we lack any assemblance of leadership in any elected or appointed official.

Anonymous said...

.



sprawl of track homes and strip malls extending from Sacramento.



Nuff said....

Anonymous said...

Interesting article in the May, 2015 issue of Forbes. Are we
perhaps like a pis* ant on HHC's radar? I think so....and we're buying into it

http://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2015/05/06/bill-ackman-baby-buffett-howard-hughes/

Anonymous said...

.


Either mow it down or turn it into a college campus.

Roseville gets Warwick University which is a highly ranked first tier university in England.

Elk Grove gets.... nothing to this point in terms of education, culture and commerce.

Maybe Elk Grove should be the sister city to the capital of the Kingdom of Zamunda.

.

Follow Us

Popular

Archives

Elk Grove News Minute






All previous Elk Grove News Minutes, interviews, and Dan Schmitt's Ya' Gotta be Schmittin' Me podcasts are now available on iTunes

Elk Grove News Podcast




item