Is The Mall Wait Over? Elk Grove City Councilman Says 'Best Case Scenario' is Spring '17 Opening



February 25, 2016 |

Is the wait over for Elk Grove shoppers?

According to comments made at last night's Elk Grove City Council meeting, the long-delayed opening of the Outlet Collection at Elk Grove could be as soon as one year from now. That statement was made by Councilman Steve Detrick during his comments and report on recent council activities.

Saying he recently met with two unidentified representatives from the shopping center developer Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC), Detrick said the facility now has leases for 40-percent of the space, and once it hits 50-percent, construction will resume. In recent months, two leases for space at the shopping center, Regal Theaters, and HB clothing, have been announced.

"They are as anxious to get the mall open as we are," Detrick said. "We made it very, very clear that this is number one priority. They're working diligently, daily, to procure leases." 

Detrick also said that once the 50-percent lease threshold is met, under HHC's accelerated construction schedule it could be open within 10 months. 

"The hope is, they're working with some major tenants if they are able to close, that they could start [construction] later on this Spring at the earliest," he said. "And they would be able to open spring of 2017, at the earliest." 

As of posting time, representatives for HHC did not respond to an inquiry regarding Detrick's claims. 

The Outlet Collection at Elk Grove, formerly known as The Elk Grove Promenade, has something of a jinxed history. Originally conceived in the 1990's before Elk Grove was incorporated, once plans got off the ground they were delayed for several years from a lawsuit filed by former California Gov. Gray Davis.

Once the Davis lawsuit, which was on environmental grounds, was settled the shopping center's original developer, General Growth Properties broke ground in 2007. In the fallout of the Great Recession and the 2008 credit crisis, construction came to an abrupt halt in July 2008, and a few months later General Growth filed the largest-ever real estate bankruptcy.  

As a result of GGP's bankruptcy proceedings, HHC was awarded possession of the unfinished mall as it continued to languish as a reminder of the Great Recession. In recent years, HHC said it would rebrand the shopping center as an outlet mall and would demolish about one-third of the original space.

In his comments, Detrick acknowledged there have been several false starts in the past and said the Spring 2017 target date would be a "best case scenario."

"Keep our fingers crossed, and hopefully we can move that forward," he concluded.  





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9 comments

Proud to be led said...

I'm voting for Detrick because he gets things done!

Anonymous said...

If all this is being done, why is there still talk of a casino at this location?

Anonymous said...

I call that talking in circles, to irresponsibly evade the issue. We never get any straight talk.

Proud to be led said...

I'm telling you, this guy is being underutilized as a desk jockey at PG&E! He's got business savvy and some Fortune 500 company just might scoop him up and we'll lose the best council person this city ever had.

Anonymous said...

I bet Enron would hire him in a second.

Anonymous said...

That's old information being passed around in mid December so obviously nothing new has happened...still at 40%. Most recent info released by the city is that some of the property is being considered for a Casino. Every day you wake up in a different world here in Elk Grove. Looks like we need to "build that fire" under our city leaders rather than HHC.

Anonymous said...

deitrick said " best case scenario ', never mentioned worst case scenario... which is never....

Unknown said...

Elk Grove just can't seem to close HIGH dollar commercial projects. They are good for displaying signs for Future Ball park, future water park, future VA center, but no one at the City can connect the dots and get these Projects off the Ground. This City has the potential to be a world class city, but unfortunately you have small City visionaries running City hall, what well run City, would allow a garbage dump like the Ghost mall to represent their City since 2008, grow some courage Elk Grove.tear this ghost mall down, build outlets, or the Casino. Let's Get stuff done, the residents deserve a better family destination, other than that bowling alley.we need a mayor with direction, connection, and a make it happen attitude, Like Kevin Johnson. and a city council with connection to high end retail store, outlets, chains.

God's word said...

I agree

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