Rounding the Bend

Fourth phase of 1 million-sq.-ft. business park in Riverside nears completion.

By David Silva

A March completion date has been set for the fourth and penultimate phase of Turner Riverwalk, a massive mixed-use development billed by the city of Riverside as one of the largest planned business parks in the Inland Empire.

Developed by Newport Beach-based Turner Development Corp., the $100 million Riverwalk will encompass 60 buildings -- 1 million sq. ft. of office, industrial and retail space -- upon build-out in the first quarter of 2008. The 73-acre site is located on Pierce Street near the 91 Freeway in Riverside.

Phase four of the five-phase development will total about 102,000 sq. ft. of office and industrial condominiums, said Mike Mitchell, site superintendent of Ontario-based Fullmer Construction, the project's general contractor.

"We've been involved in all phases of the project, and for us as industrial builder, it's really something to see the architectural style of the four phases coming together," Mitchell said.

Fullmer crews began construction of phase four in March. The project will include a 41,000-sq.-ft., two-story office building and 17 single-story buildings ranging in size from 2,600 to 11,500 sq. ft. The single-story buildings will house 11 office and six medical office condominiums.

The design of the single-story phase four buildings will "closely mirror" the 13 office condos comprising Turner Riverwalk's third phase, said project architect Mike Snyder of Ware Malcomb in Irvine.

"The colors we chose for phase four are almost a duplicate of phase three," Snyder said. "They're fairly neutral earth tones. The walls are all tilt-up concrete, and we're going with some nice water features, including fountains within the single-story area."

Water plays a significant role in the aesthetics of Riverwalk, which derives its names from the natural streams that run along Pierce Street.

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Ware Malcomb incorporated the streams into the layout of the development. A scenic lake - complete with ducks, tree-lined banks and a wooden gazebo extending out over the water -- greets visitors as they enter Turner Riverwalk. Paved walkways and wood bridges flank a meandering stream along the business park's Pierce Street front.

"Just thinking about the whole architectural elements of the project is quite amazing to me," Mitchell said. "You typically just see a big box for large business parks."

From the standpoint of sales, Turner Riverwalk is already a success. Almost all of the development's phases one, two and three buildings have been pre-leased or sold, as well as an estimated 30 percent of phase four buildings, according to project team and city officials.

Signed tenants include DR Horton, Casco Equipment Corp., Pacific Shores Co., Pacific Production Plumbing, Fireplace Distributors, Encore Orthopedics, Gorilla Marketing, Canyon Consulting, Bender & Associates, ReMax, Kaiser Federal Bank, BPI, William Lyon Homes, Woodside Homes and the Welebir and McCune law corporation.

Turner Riverwalk was initially planned as a six-phase project, to be completed in 2009, but Belinda Graham, development director for the city of Riverside, said the strong client response to the first five phases of the development prompted Turner to decide on an earlier completion date.

Turner Vice President Michael Kendall said that meeting the new 2008 finish date will involve splitting the former sixth phase into two separate projects and building them concurrently. Work will begin on phase five in December.

Kendall told California Construction in an October 2005 interview that the primary challenge to completing Turner Riverwalk was the skyrocketing cost of construction materials. More than a year later, he said that while overall costs "have simmered down a bit," material inflation is still a problem.

"Rising costs seem to move around on different materials," he said. "Currently, everything that's petroleum based is going back down a bit, but concrete is still expensive and we're seeing increases in steel. Plywood is coming down. It seems that every week there's some commodity that's going up while there's reduction in other materials."

The Project Team
Owner/Developer: Turner Development Corp., Newport Beach
General Contractor: Fulmer Construction, Ontario
Architect: Ware Malcomb, Irvine
Major subcontractors: TK