"This will continue to help fill the retail void," Fremont Economic Development Director Daren Fields said of the Bayside project. A city survey performed about five years ago, he added, found that Fremont residents made $1.1 billion in annual purchases outside city limits.
Bayside Marketplace to include several big-box retailers, dozen small shops
A major shopping center planned for Fremont's southern limit, just west of Interstate 880, could be completed by the end of next year, city officials said.
The 49-acre Bayside Marketplace would include several big box retailers, about a dozen smaller shops and 1,993 parking spaces just north of Dixon Landing Road.
As part of an agreement with the city, property owners King & Lyons also would extend Fremont Boulevard south from Lakeview Boulevard to Dixon Landing Road.
The owners also have agreed to dedicate about 100 acres west of the project site to the Don Edwards wildlife refuge and provide an easement for the Bay Trail to run through the property.
The project originally was proposed as an industrial park, but developers changed it to retail last year as the market for industrial space continued to slump.
Bayside Marketplace is Fremont's latest effort in a drive to boost sales tax revenues by encouraging construction of a regional shopping center near I-880 interchanges.
Pacific Commons and the Oakland A's Ballpark Village promise more shopping opportunities off Auto Mall Parkway. Just west of the Stevenson Boulevard interchange, construction continues on The Globe, an international-themed shopping and entertainment center.
"This will continue to help fill the retail void," Fremont Economic Development Director Daren Fields said of the Bayside project. A city survey performed about five years ago, he added, found With 1978's Proposition 13 limiting cities' ability to generate property tax revenues, sales taxes have become a vital revenue source. Last fiscal year, Fremont took in $34.2 million in sales tax revenues,which amounted to nearly 30 percent of total revenues, according to a recent city budget report. Sales tax revenues, mostly from retail purchases, have increased by an average of $1 million each of the last five years as shopping centers have been constructed and renovated, Fields said. As the market for office and industrial space remains sluggish, Bayside Marketplace is one of several Fremont projects to switch from industrial or office space to retail or housing. The A's ballpark village was originally slated for a Cisco campus and a planned retail and residential development in central Fremont originally was supposed to include office space. Although business and industrial parks typically don't generate as much revenue as chain retailers, they do provide high-paying jobs for residents who don't want long commutes. Despite the push for retail, Fields said Fremont still has plenty of room for other types of businesses. The city has about 2 million square feet of vacant industrial and office space, which Fields estimated will take about 10 years to fill. As for the proposed Bayside Marketplace, preliminary plans include three as-yet-unnamed anchor tenants and just under 500,000 square feet of total retail space — about 100,000 square feet less than The Fremont Hub. The extension of Fremont Boulevard will include bridges over a flood control channel and Scott Creek, which will run through the shopping center. An environmental review of the project is expected to take about a year, Fields said, and construction could begin in early 2009.
that Fremont residents made $1.1 billion in annual purchases outside city limits.
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