We also like large projects. It’s an 80-acre site, and we are able to achieve almost one-million square feet in retail entitlements, and another 500,000 square feet in medical office and hotel.

GlobeSt.com: How hard is it to find sites like this?

Manarino: For sites like Downey, it is nearly impossible because 80 acres of land does not exist in urban infill locations. It has to be a transitional site. These aerospace plants are great transitional sites. The greatest opportunities for developers are in these transitional sites. But inherent in these sites are the complexities that come with them. They are very expensive to acquire and are usually fraught with environmental and demolition challenges. Sometimes you have to relocate tenants that are currently on the property. The problem is that they are very complex, but once you can acquire them at a reasonable price and get entitlements, therein lies the opportunity because they are the sites that retailers want to be in. Right now, the universe of retailers keeps getting smaller. Typically, there is only one category killer in each category. Our goal is to get the category killer in every category, not only because of the sales volume but because of their credit worthiness, and the likelihood that they’re going to be open for the term of their lease and beyond.

GlobeSt.com: Since retailers are expanding more, have you noticed that you are getting a different reception from prospective tenants than you might have in the past?

Manarino: Yes. We have what we believe is the category killer in just about every category that we’re negotiating with right now. If they’re not the number one, they are equally is good, or maybe a notch below. It is more robust that it was a few years ago. I hate to admit it, but even though we have the superior site and demographics, the retailers still seem to have the upper hand in negotiating terms. They want to expand and be on our property. But we’re still struggling a bit with the retailer having the leverage. Hopefully over time we can get to a point where there is a little more balance in that negotiation.

GlobeSt.com: What is the lending climate like for a property like this?

Manarino: What we need to do is solve for the project first. We’ve got to start with vested, non appealable entitlements. We have to have a clean site that lenders will be comfortable with. We’ve got to have 70% to 80% lease commitments. We have to have reliable construction pricing. Once you put that package together, there are several lenders out there that are very interested in lending on projects that are preleased to credit-worthy tenants, in a core, primary market.

GlobeSt.com: Can you give an overview of the tenant mix you are shooting for?

Manarino: We’re going to have at least two large-format retailers, probably seven to 10 junior anchors in the 30,000 to 50,000-square-foot range. We’ll also have a handful of the smaller junior anchors in the 10,000 to 15,0000-square-foot range. A lot of that will be apparel and sporting goods. We plan on having fitness, a small grocery component, and we’ve created an entertainment component. Obviously retailers have struggled. One of the things that you need to have in any great project is an 18-hour environment. We like balancing that neighborhood community center with some entertainment, so we are going to have a theater, several best-in-class restaurant operators and a lot of the quick-service people. We will have a lifestyle component as well, and balance that with a hotel and some medical office. The reason we can do those two things is that we’re adjacent to a relatively recent Kaiser regional hospital. It attracts about 6,000 people a day. We see our village area being very busy throughout the day as well as the night.

GlobeSt.com: What are your main objectives at the ICSC Western Division Conference?

Manarino: The conference for us is always the big one. We love Las Vegas, but for us, most of the retailers that we’re focused on are here on the West Coast. It gives us the opportunity to get together socially with people. We don’t need to go to a shopping center conference to make deals. If we need to go to San Diego to make deals, then we’re not doing our job. It’s really to stay in force and keep the project out in front of people. Most of the deals are already in progress. It will be saying hello and reinforcing that we’re moving forward. If we can meet some new people, that is a great add on to our objective.