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Languishing 450,000-SF Retail Center Attracts Local Buyer with Big Plans

SAN PABLO, CA-Local developer Signature Properties is considering acquisition of the 38-acre El Portal retail shopping center, a 450,000-sf, 1970s-era complex that is 60% leased and ripe for redevelopment.

By Becky Bergman | Updated on February 14, 2001

SAN PABLO, CA-Pleasanton, CA-based Signature Properties is negotiating the acquisition and revival of El Portal, a 450,000-sf, 1970s-era retail shopping center here that is 60% occupied and owned by Bridgecreek Group Inc. There is a signed agreement between the two, but it could be a month before a formal proposal is submitted to city officials and up to a year before the deal closes.

Signature’s vision includes demolishing roughly half of the 38-acre site for single-family homes and townhouses. As part of the plan, several buildings fronting San Pablo Avenue would be renovated, including the city’s library, a 350-seat community center, a computer-training center, county offices and an ethnic grocer.

Bridgecreek, the developer of Orange County’s Little Saigon, purchased El Portal in 1997 and dumped $50 million in renovations in an attempt to turn it into an Asian-Hispanic themed center. The company had hoped to transform the 1970s-era shopping center into a prosperous Vietnamese business district, but it didn’t pan out. Bridgecreek also tried unsuccessfully to lure a movie theater and establish a food court in the center’s indoor mall.

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