Simon Plans 600K SF Multifamily at Stoneridge Mall

Simon Property Group increasingly is embracing experiential strategies creating retail villages infused with residential developments, with a growing expectation that these mixed-use communities will be the next generation of post-pandemic malls.

The largest mall REIT announced this week its latest hybrid project for an emerging hybrid age: the company has filed plans to convert a parking structure into a 360-unit, five-and-one-half story residential campus at Stoneridge Shopping Center in the East Bay city of Pleasanton.

The 618K SF apartment building will replace a 700-vehicle parking facility that will be demolished. Simon is planning to build a new 383K SF parking garage that can hold 473 cars—inside the new apartment building.

According to the plans, the apartment units at Stoneridge will be “wrapped” around an internal, five-level parking structure. Residents will have access to two ground-level outdoor courtyard spaces, including a mix of common use outdoor space and recreational space. The building also will have a common rooftop deck area.

The project will be built on six acres located between the mall and a new 10X Genomics campus across Stonebridge Mall Road. Although the parcel was not included as part of Pleasanton’s current sixth Housing Element plan, it was one of nine sites that were zoned for high-density multifamily development in 2012 in order to meet the state’s target in a previous planning cycle.

Therefore, the city already has a completed environmental impact review for the site, expediting the Simon conversion project, Pleasanton officials told the Livermore Vine.

According to the newspaper report, Simon originally was going to build 500 apartment units at the site but scaled the building down to create more open space, as suggested by city planners.

“The applicant has [added] usable open space and landscaped areas within the project, as well as areas for circulation and gathering, that will improve the connectivity and functionality for that portion of the mall and make better use of an underutilized parking field,” Eric Luchini, Pleasanton’s senior city planner, told the Vine.

Last month, Simon unveiled an experiential mall project in Los Angeles, an Urban-Retail Village with 380 apartment units, outdoor shops and restaurants that will replace a former Sears complex at Brea Mall.

Urban-Retail Village is a rapidly emerging post-pandemic model for the redevelopment of malls into experiential communities, where people can stroll out of their apartments into a neighborhood filled with outdoor shops, restaurants and, of course, a fitness center so the local foot traffic is brisk.

According to plans the mall REIT submitted to the city late last year—which were approved by the Brea Planning Commission in December—Simon is planning this kind of transformation at the Brea Mall, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.

The plans call for the redevelopment of 16 acres of the 74-acre mall, a vacant 162K wing formerly occupied by a Sears department store and a Sears Auto Center, which is a separate building in a 7.5-acre parking lot.