The new, much-anticipated expansion of Turlock’s Monte Vista Crossings shopping center will open before Christmas, Turlock city staff said this week.
As part of a development agreement, Monte Vista Crossings developers Hall Equities Group must provide pads for the two anchor stores, Dick’s Sporting Goods and Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft, by April. That’s so the stores can be ready in time for the all-important holiday shopping season.
“It will all be open before Christmas,” said Maryn Pitt, Assistant to the City Manager for Housing and Ecomonic Development. “It’s a pretty fast schedule.”
To make that schedule feasible, the City of Turlock is “committed” to reviewing building plans as quickly as possible, Pitt said.
As previously reported, the 108,907 square-foot expansion of Monte Vista Crossings is scheduled to break ground on Feb. 15. Phase II of Monte Vista Crossings will be constructed just south of Kohl's and The Olive Garden, in the square of land bordered by Highway 99, Countryside Drive, and Tuolumne Road.
In addition to the two anchors, the development has been confirmed to include the following: a Tilly’s surf and skate apparel store; a Kirkland’s home décor store; a Maurice’s women’s clothing shop; a Justice and Brothers tween apparel location; and, a factory-owned Sprint cellphone shop. The development will also include six currently unidentified stores and a restaurant.
Pitt noted that Turlock’s trade area now exceeds 300,000 people, not including the populations of Merced and Modesto. She said that Turlock’s centralized location could be a boon to future development, as retailers look to site stores in between the two population centers to pull from a larger area.
“You can start to see, obviously, we’re becoming more regional,” Pitt said.
