Officials look next to bring high-paying jobs to city
The city of Gilroy’s commercial explosion around Pacheco Pass may cool off a bit as an assortment of restaurants and stores claim the last few spots in a million square-feet of retail space.
But that doesn’t spell the end of Gilroy’s economic growth, according to some officials. With the right market conditions, they predict the city’s commercial expansion will combine with new corporate and industrial uses to create a self-contained city, one that offers people of all income levels a place to live, shop, work and advance.
The city has already doled out nearly all of its existing retail space in Pacheco Pass and Gilroy Crossing, the shopping centers that stand on the north and south sides of Route 152.
In the next two years, five new businesses will open in Gilroy Crossing, including two restaurants and Sugarland, a music chain-store.
To the north, Chuck E. Cheese held its grand opening last week in the Pacheco Pass shopping center, followed by Home Goods, Jack In The Box, and Old Navy. The Wal-Mart Supercenter, set to open in summer 2005, will use 220,000 square-feet of space – more than a third of the land available for development in the center.
It is no accident that businesses have chosen Gilroy as their home, according to Sandy Tompkins, store manager at Kohl’s. The discount retail store opened in early October in Gilroy Crossing.
“I know that the CEO of Kohl’s personally chose this location based on the shopping center opportunities and the other retailers moving in,” Tompkins said. “You want good neighbors to attract people. The other thing is our proximity to the freeway.”
Of the 475,000 square-feet originally available in Gilroy Crossing, only 10,000 square feet designated for restaurant use is left, according to John Greenhut, the city’s deputy director of community development.
The next big phase of development in Gilroy will involve a mix of commercial, industrial and corporate development to the east of the Pacheco Pass shopping centers. EDC board member Bill Rameil said retail stores and industrial buildings are slated for the Machado property, about 100 acres east of Pacheco Pass off Renz Lane. Meanwhile, the McCarthy Industrial Park, planned for development on the southern edge of Route 152 just west of Gilroy Foods, could draw industrial uses and corporate offices for high-tech companies and research and development.
Rameil said the original intent of the McCarthy project was to attract “more of the middle- to high-income jobs like engineers, high tech, and management people, which means bringing companies down.”
Dispatch reporter Serdar Tumgoren can be reached at at
st*******@gi************.com
or 847-7109.
