Instant Downtown

Rancho Cucamonga Gets Town Center in Victoria Gardens

The outdoor shopping district's four-blocks of 30 differently designed buildings include a central plaza with a river-like water feature, sidewalk kiosks and streetside parking. The second phase of the 1.3 million sq.-ft. project, which broke ground in November, includes a city-owned library and playhouse.

By Greg Aragon

Highlighting the center's tribute to local history and classic downtowns is the 23,000-sq.-ft. Orchard Food Hall. Topped by a huge, illuminated sign and themed with orange groves, old packing labels, old-style murals and a matrix of overhead wooden beams, the building salutes the fruit packing industry, an integral part of Rancho Cucamonga's roots (photo by Greg Aragon).

It can take years for a new downtown shopping and entertainment district to achieve an old-fashioned, "lived-in" feel.

But with the autumn grand opening of the 1.3 million-sq.-ft. Victoria Gardens, an open-air lifestyle mall, the city of Rancho Cucamonga may have achieved the goal overnight.

"It's an instant downtown," said Susan Porter, who lives about 2 mi. from the new four-block shopping district and came on opening day with her two children. "I know it just opened, but it seems like it's been here for a while."

Developed by a partnership of Forest City Development California Inc. and Upland-based Lewis Investment Co., the $285-million, 147-acre project includes 120 stores and restaurants in 30 buildings of various sizes and design. About 40,000 sq. ft. of office space is available for lease in the Chaffey Building, one of two rectangular structures that form the east and west border of a grassy, central plaza, called the town square.

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Victoria Gardens is a product of four design teams: Cleveland-based KA Architects and Boston-based Elkus Manfredi Architects (executive architects of record; Los Angeles based-Altoon & Porter (executive design architect); and San Francisco-based Field Paoli (master plan architect).

Architects studied the local history of the Inland Empire as well as the western United States and created a district reminiscent of main streets from the 1920s and '30s. Next, it decorated the buildings with old signage and period artwork and configured them so that they appear to progress through the ages as you venture farther away from town square.

The copper-topped, Portuguese limestone-cladded Chaffey Building forms the east flank of Victoria Garden's central plaza (photo by Greg Aragon).

"The buildings have a variety of character expressed through their architectural history-from contemporary to more historic, to give them the sense of having been there for some time," said Dave Paoli, president of Field Paoli. "Our inspiration comes from experiences with existing downtowns and shopping neighborhoods that we think are historically successful-downtowns like San Francisco's."

Highlighting the center's tribute to local history and classic downtowns is the 23,000-sq.-ft. Orchard Food Hall. Topped by a huge, illuminated sign and themed with orange groves, old packing labels, old-style murals and a matrix of exposed overhead wooden beams, the building salutes the fruit packing industry, an integral part of Rancho Cucamonga's roots.

"The food hall is tremendous-it's a cathedral for food," said James Auld, a partner with Altoon & Porter, who grew up in neighboring Ontario. "It makes a reference to the local history, but also provides the development a large enclosed space where events can be held."

A small grove of magnolia trees, a children's playground, seating for 150 people and, of all things, a two-sided fireplace provide an al fresco gathering place at one end of the food hall.

While the food court draws inspiration from old California, the town square has a worldly design.

The town square buildings-with $800,000 worth of Portuguese limestone cladding the façades of two 32,000-sq.-ft. buildings and four identical copper domes jutting from the roofs -are reminiscent of Georgian structures found in England.

Situated at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains, at the junction of interstates 210 and 15, Victoria Gardens broke ground in September 2003. At the height of construction, the projected enlisted about 120 subcontractors and 1,500 workers.

Shoppers stroll along South Main Street on opening day (photo by Greg Aragon).

The largest tenants at the faux downtown district include a 12-screen AMC Theatres cineplex, JCPenney, Macy's and Robinsons-May.

Pottery Barn, Abercrombie & Fitch, Borders, American Eagle Outfitters, Anchor Blue, Ann Taylor Loft, Cold Water Creek, Express, Hollister, Lane Bryant, New York & Co., Pacific Sunwear and Talbots are part of the "Avenue of Fashion."

Rich Hartline, vice president of the Newport Beach office of Vratsinas Construction Co., the project's general contractor, said that ensuring that all of the buildings opened simultaneously was the most difficult challenge he faced.

"Every building had its own permit and set of contractors," Hartline added. "But they all had the same completion date."

He said that, unlike a typical, enclosed regional mall, where just one huge superstructure is built and the next six months are spent finishing out the interior, a massive, open-air lifestyle complex such as Victoria Gardens requires a lot more exterior work because of the quantity of separate buildings.

Adding to the serenity of Victoria Gardens are hundreds of mature trees, 10 decorative fountains and three garden/park areas located throughout the property. One park area in town square includes a running fountain that will flow into a stream. The others are an herb garden and seating area outside Macy's.

Other "downtown" features include storefront parking, cross walks, stop signs, street signs and an old-fashioned, free red trolley car service.

Jim Heller of KA Architects, left; Forest City's Al Ratner, center, and Abe Sapperstein at the Oct. 28 opening of Victoria Gardens (photo by Paul Napolitano).

"It's a place in Rancho Cucamonga that people can point to as the city's central gathering retail core," said Linda Daniels, redevelopment director for Rancho Cucamonga's economic development agency. "Victoria Gardens will allow the city's citizens to come together as a community family."

A second phase broke ground on Nov. 6 and is in the steel erection stage. Scheduled to open in early 2006, the 65,000-sq.-ft. Victoria Gardens Cultural Center and library will consist of a 100,000-volume library, 530-seat playhouse and a 425-person capacity celebration hall. The phase also involves finding tenants for the office space above the town square.

Victoria Gardens is expected to generate more than $5 million in new retail sales tax, property tax and business license taxes annually, Daniels said. When the entire complex is built out, it will have created more than 3,000 new, permanent and part-time jobs.