Construction preparations for Cupertino's largest residential development on the positioning of the old Vallco Shopping Mall are scheduled to start this summer.
The Rise, a mixed-use housing project, will include shops, offices and a pair of,400 residential spaces, half of which will likely be reserved for reasonably priced housing. The project received the green light from the City Council in February and will likely be built on the 50-acre former mall site on the corner of North Wolfe Road and Stevens Creek Boulevard near Interstate 280.
Sand Hill Property Co, which owns the positioning, said developers are preparing the positioning for the installation of utilities and infrastructure in the summertime, followed by the development of the buildings. “The bulk of the mobilisation will take place in the autumn, which is when people will definitely start to notice activity on the site,” said Reed Moulds, managing director of Sand Hill Property.
Residents can receive construction updates through Sand Hill's Good Neighbours Programmeincluding alerts on activities equivalent to dust reduction, material recycling, schedules, traffic control and truck routes
“Good communication with the community and the city has always been a priority for us,” Moulds said. “That will continue to be a priority.”
The Rise could potentially be accomplished by 2028, but Moulds said the timeline depends heavily on the state of the local real estate market. The past few years have been difficult for the industry, with corporations within the Bay Area and across the country struggling to seek out financing amid high rates of interest and inflation.
Some developers have decided to delay or abandon projects altogether until the outlook improves, while others have been forced to remodel their projects to make them more attractive to construction financiers. An earlier version of The Rise, for instance, called for buildings with a mixture of rental and sales apartments in tall towers above ground-floor shops and restaurants. Sand Hill has modified the version approved by the City Council to call for lower buildings above ground-floor retail or sales apartments above the retail — but not each.
The final completion of The Rise will help Cupertino achieve its goal of making greater than 4,500 recent homes by 2031.
Efren Flores, owner of Holder's Country Inn restaurant on North Wolfe Road, which is directly across from the development site, said he looks forward to the project's completion. Holder's has been on Wolfe Road for 2 years since its original location on South De Anza Boulevard burned down.
An influx of latest residents moving to the Rise neighborhood could bring recent customers and opportunities to Cupertino businesses, he said.
“We are almost right in front of it and will therefore be exposed to the noise and dust of the construction site,” said Flores. “But in the long run it will be very beneficial for us and other companies.”
The road to approval of the ambitious project was rocky.
An initial proposal for The Rise from Sand Hill in 2018 called for constructing a whole bunch more residential, office and industrial spaces, in addition to a wealth of community advantages, including a brand new performing arts center, city hall and emergency response center. The project would have been approved under SB35, a state law that requires local governments to streamline housing projects in cities that fail to create enough housing.
Neil Park-McClintick, chairman of local housing organization Cupertino for All, said he would have liked to see the space reach its full potential with the unique design. Although the present design is scaled down, the Cupertino native is worked up to see The Rise built.
The Rise “will really be the heart of the city,” he said. “It's an opportunity to create a more transit-oriented city and attract a large number of jobs and projects.”
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