Modern Renaissance

Ontario's Piemonte project injects Old World charm in a modern downtown

By Joe Florkowski

Sacramento-based Panattoni Development Co. has started the first phase of a major development to give the city of Ontario a modern downtown -- albeit one with an Old World feel.

Called Piemonte at Ontario Center, the mixed-use project will include retail, residential, office space and eventually a 10,000-seat sports arena on nearly 100 acres. Piemonte is a lifestyle center modeled after similar Main Street-themed developments across the U.S.

But one of the key features of the project is that it is being designed with northern Italian styles similar to what is found in the Piemonte region in Italy. One of Ontario's early residents, Secondo Guasti, came from the area and the developers named Piemonte after his homeland.

Panattoni Construction Co. is building the first phase of the project. Greenberg Farrow is serving as the master site plan architect and Architects Orange is doing the design and working drawings for the project.

Piemonte will also include four-story multi-family units built on top of existing retail along a Main Street-style street. About 800 residential units are planned with half on top of retail and the other half separate.

It's an urban village, high-density downtown for Ontario, which is rare in Orange County and the Inland Empire, said Jack Selman, senior partner with Architects Orange.

"You would find something like this in L.A.," said Selman. "It's a true mixed-use regional downtown."

The city of Ontario did a lot of groundwork to make this development happen, Selman said.

"They wanted a high-end downtown," Selman said. "They said we want to do high-end condos."

To create that sense of Northern Italy, Architects Orange incorporated olive palm trees and cypress trees into the landscaping and clay tile roofs and colors such as sienna were used on the buildings.

Although the buildings are modern, the architectural references for the project are historical and traditional, Selman said.

"It will be a unique experience compared with other centers and places," he said.

According to Panattoni's Web site for the project, Piemonte will also include 400,000 sq. ft. of retail, 550,000 sq. ft. of Class A office space and a 200-room hotel.

The first phase of Piemonte is a retail shopping center that will include a Target and a Best Buy and encompass about 253,000 sq. ft. Target is expected to open next spring.

The first phase being built at Piemonte is more of a traditional shopping center, said Frank Coda, senior associate in Greenberg Farrow's Irvine office.

The challenge will be to blend this center in with the rest of Piemonte and the Italian design, he said.
"The concern was that if we went and designed something, how would that relate to the Main Street?" Coda said. "It sets the tone for the project."

Unlike the residential and retail portions of Piemonte, the office and hotel will not blend in as much with the Italian design because of those building's uses, Coda said.

Like Selman, Coda said one of the challenges of this project was making the project feel like it's from Northern Italy, but also make it look real.

"How do we make this project look like it's not brand spanking new?" Coda said. "We didn't want to Disneyesque it. We really spent time on the materials."

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