Folsom Ranch’s next retail center Alder Creek Marketplace could break ground within the next 12 months, and prospective tenants are already in talks to join. The 95,000-square-foot shopping center will include four pads for drive-thru restaurants and a gas station, three multitenant shop buildings, and a 55,000-square-foot grocery anchor space. The grocery store will be the first in the master planned community, which is expected to include thousands of new homes, retail projects, medical developments
and a sports complex.
Folsom officials awarded entitlements for Alder Creek Marketplace earlier this year. Leasing eff orts have been ongoing since last year. The project is being spearheaded by Cupertino-based Hunter Properties Inc. and its capital partner PCCP LLC, who also developed The Shops at Folsom Ranch retail center across the street.
Josh Rupert, director of development for Hunter Properties, said approximately 60% of the planned spaces have either received letters of intent from interested parties or are in negotiations on leases. Leasing materials indicate a national grocer has signed a letter of intent for the center’s anchor space.
“Our goal is to be greater than 75% leased by the time we start construction, and we are heading toward that goal,” Rupert said.
Leasing broker Steve Edwards of The Edwards Co. said the center is focusing on bringing in best-in-class operators, both regional and national, ranging from food and beverage operators and soft goods retailers to daily needs users such as the grocery anchor and agas station. The Edwards Co. also handles leasing for the developer’s property across the street, which Edwards said is now 100% leased.
As part of the project, the developer is required to build roads to the west and south of the project site, as well as make other landscaping and infrastructure improvements in the area.
“We have four pad sites that will be ground leases, so all we will be responsible for before turning them over to the tenant is to have infrastructure subbed to them,” he said. “We expect to have infrastructure work done within approximately 12 months.”
A project estimate was not available for Alder Creek Marketplace. Rupert said his team iscurrently working with consultants on building designs for the remaining shop buildingsand expect to have plans submitted for permits by the end of the year.
He anticipates the review and approval process will take several months. While a start date on construction will be market-driven, he said, the hope is to break ground in the second or third quarter of 2025.
“Folsom Ranch in its entirety has been an incredibly exciting project to be part of,” Rupert said. “The nice thing about being the developer of both Alder Creek Market place and The Shops is that we can look at these two properties and merchandise them as a single entity. We are looking to bring in complementary tenants to what we’ve already been able to do at The Shops and believe we will be able to do something that the city of Folsom and the Folsom Ranch community will be very proud of.”