The development team it has selected to move forward with is a partnership of the Widewaters Group and Robert M. Leidig & Assoc. Widewaters is a Dewitt, NY-based development and management company that owns 3.6 million sf of retail in 47 shopping centers and 2,000 hotels rooms in 15 hotels, and has nine more properties under development. Robert M. Leidig is a Monterey County developer based in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA.
Known as the "salad bowl of the world" because it is surrounded by agriculture, Salinas is a city of 150,000 people located 60 miles south of the Silicon Valley and 15 miles from the Monterey Peninsula. The region has been labeled one of the most expensive places in the world to live because housing prices have risen far above the median income for the area, which is 60% Hispanic while at the same time becoming a bedroom community to the Silicon Valley and having little raw land available for new development.
That combination of pressures is what led to the Downtown redevelopment idea. The general plan is to transform an area of low-rise, 1960's era government buildings and parking lots into a vibrant mixed-use district. With the city's selection of the Widewaters and Robert M. Leidig & Assoc., the specifics are about to be hashed out.
"We have been working to achieve this cooperation for over a year," says Curtis Leidig, a western states representative for Widewaters Group. Leidig says the development will include concepts from New Urbanism, such as, walk-ability, sustainable design, connectivity, quality architecture and a design that takes advantage of the surrounding transit options. Adjacent to the planning area are a bus transit center and an Amtrak station that is about to start accommodating regular commuter service to the Silicon Valley. Abutting the north end of the planning area is the National Steinbeck Center, a museum focused on the life of Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck, who lived in Salinas.
As part of the city's selection, the Widewaters/Leidig team has been given the exclusive right to research, plan and submit for review a master plan for the redevelopment of the city-owned land. Urban Design Associates, from Pittsburg, PA, has been retained to take the lead for the master planning work.
The urban planning will include a participatory creative design process in which citizens, economists, architects, developer, policy makers and government officials will meet to create a financially feasible vision for the future, according to Leidig. Other members of the development team include Joe Coomes with McDonough Holland & Allen, Derinda L. Messenger & Assoc. and WWD Corp., a local civil engineering firm.
If all goes as planned the Widewaters/Leidig team will become the master developer of the city-owned property and negotiate with other third-party developers on behalf of the city. Ultimately the city-owned parcels in the planning area would be transferred to developers in exchange for those developers providing new government facilities for the city in addition to new retail, residential and office space. A timeline for the redevelopment will be part of the eventual disposition and development agreement between the city and Widewaters/Leidig.
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