After nearly 16 years of the proposed redevelopment of the former Mission Center mall, Mission Gateway developers are back with a new $268 million plan that anticipates completing the project in 2025.
New York-based Cameron Group LLC and GFI Development Co. now plan for a mixed-use building with a 10,000- to 15,000-square-foot food hall on the first floor and a 372-unit apartment complex above.
Twenty percent of the apartment units would be designated for affordable housing options, dependent on three separate average median income percentages. The units would include studios, one- and two-bedrooms, according to city documents.
“We tried to sort of move the affordability throughout the entire project, not just one type of unit, and have structured to also meet the needs of the capital markets within our financing parameters,” Andy Ashwal, vice president and senior asset manager at GFI Capital Resources Group Inc., said at the Mission City Council meeting Wednesday.
Cameron Group and GFI Development’s $225 million 2018 plan expired Dec. 31, terminating an incentive agreement with the city, but it was clear more than a year earlier that work would not be completed.
In March 2020, the developers said they would pause work for 30 days, citing concerns about their ability to maintain social distancing for more than 70 on-site workers. However, city officials announced in June that Cameron Group and GFI would not be resuming work that summer because of pandemic-related effects on the municipal bond market and private mezzanine financing.
The previous plan included a 90,000-square-foot Cinergy Entertainment complex with a dine-in movie theater, bowling alley and a range of games; a 40,000-square-foot food hall, through a collaboration with celebrity chef Tom Colicchio; a 200-room Marriott Element hotel; a 169-unit luxury apartment complex; and a 75,000-square-foot office building.
Now, the developer plans to begin construction in the third quarter on the apartments, food hall, parking, Cinergy entertainment center and a retail complex located on the ground floor of a second apartment building. The entertainment center and parking would be completed by mid-2023, with work on the retail, food hall and apartments finishing by the third quarter of 2025, according to city documents.
The hotel would begin construction at the end of this year, and office construction would kick off in 2023. City documents say both would be completed the third quarter of 2025.
Several interior courtyards are dispersed throughout the project for visitors to “enjoy themselves not just in the restaurants, but also in the grassy areas within the community,” Ashwal said at the meeting.
“We want to create one large cohesive community,” Ashwal said. “Buildings that work together so when you’re there you’ll really feel like you’re in one cohesive place where all buildings speak to each other.”
