Ontario, Snyder Negotiate on $200M Development

ONTARIO, CA-The City of Ontario and the Los Angeles-based JH Snyder Co. have entered into an exclusive negotiation agreement for the redevelopment of the Downtown Civic Center project, a $200-million development designed to revitalize the city’s core. The city conceived of the project in 2003 as a means of revitalizing a 12-block area of Ontario’s core that is bounded by D Street to the north, Holt Boulevard to the south, Sultana Avenue to the east and Euclid Avenue to the west. The city’s redevelopment plan envisions approximately 750 units of housing, including lofts, rental and for-sale units; 100,000 sf of ground-floor retail; and 200,000 sf of office space and academic spaces in cooperation with the University of LaVerne Law School. These new uses will join the existing City Hall, a recently completed senior center and a public library that is now under construction. Cliff Goldstein, senior partner of the JH Snyder Co., notes that an environmental impact report is under way for the project, with groundbreaking scheduled for 2005 and completion in 2006. The project will rejuvenate a 100-year-old Downtown area, Ontario Mayor Gary C. Ovitt points out. The project will be designed by architect Jon Jerde of the Jerde Partnership of Venice, which also has designed Snyder’s the River in Rancho Mirage, the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas and Horton Plaza in San Diego. Jerde has also worked with Snyder on retail and mixed-use destinations including NoHo Commons in North Hollywood and West Hollywood Gateway in West Hollywood. The Ontario project will add to more than four million sf of office space, two million sf of retail development and more than 40,000 housing units that Snyder has developed.