FEATURE ARTICLE, SEPTEMBER 2005

OPPORTUNITY STRIKES
Transcan Development is creating new centers in Northern and Southern California.
Randall Shearin

When Bob Bahen started Transcan Development in 2001, he wanted to create a company that developed great centers for California. Today, the company has one project under construction and three in various stages of planning and development. With two centers underway in the Inland Empire, one in San Diego County, and a fourth in Contra Costa County, Transcan is active statewide. Its projects are ambitious, and contain credit tenants and high-end architectural features not normally found in centers of their type. Bahen, who serves as president and CEO of Transcan, sees this as adding a lifestyle touch to every day retail.

“We want the architectural quality of our centers to be fitting with the lifestyle of the community where we are locating,” says Bahen.

Based in Alamo, California, Transcan has focused on transportation. Rather, development near freeways or major transportation hubs that attract residents and traffic. While Transcan has been around for a number of years, development takes time. Early next year, the company will open its first center, with others to follow. The company wants to develop as many centers as it can in the next few years, according to Bahen. Bahen considers Transcan an opportunistic developer, one that will not set a number for growth, but that will grow organically according to the opportunities that come its way.

Rendering of Transcan’s Canyon Crossings in Riverside, California.

Transcan’s second — and most ambitious — development is County Crossings, located in Antioch, California. Located at the intersection of Highways 4 and 160 in Contra Costa County, County Crossings is one of the largest remaining developable sites in the Bay Area offering freeway frontage. The 250-acre mixed-use center will feature retail, office, residential and transit-oriented space. A proposed BART station sits at the nexus of the project, and the residential will also be transit-related. Large format major and specialty retailers are anticipated to locate at the 1.2 million-square-foot shopping center, in addition to restaurants and cafes. Approximately 250,000 square feet of office space will also be part of County Crossings. Transcan plans to open County Crossings in mid- to late 2007. The BART station is anticipated for a 2010 opening.

Next up for Transcan is the Winchester Commercial Center in Temecula. The company is planning to develop a $20 million mixed-use center on 8 acres it acquired near Interstate 15 in Riverside County. The 70,800-square-foot project will consist of commercial office and medical buildings ranging in size from 5,000 square feet to a two-story 22,000-square-foot building. There will also be 12,500 square feet of retail at the project. Transcan expects to open the project in late 2006.

Transcan is also in the early stages of developing California Crossings, a 1 million-square-foot center located 1.5 miles from the Mexican border in San Diego County. Large format and major retailers, specialty retailers, restaurants and cafes are expected to anchor the center. The soon to be completed State Route 125 is key to the project. This future road, which runs by the site, will connect central San Diego with the existing Otay Mesa border crossing. It is estimated that more than 200,000 cars will pass the site daily once the road is in operation October 2006.

“There are more than 1.8 million people just a mile and a half from California Crossings in the City of Tijuana, Baja California’s largest city,” Bahen adds. The project is also close to San Diego’s newest master planned community, Otay Ranch, which spans 5,300 acres and will have a population of 75,000 when completely built out.

CB Richard Ellis has been retained to lease and manage Transcan’s Southern California centers while Colliers International is leasing and will manage County Crossings in Antioch.           

To find land in space-starved California, Transcan works closely with a network of brokers to locate possible sites. Once a site has been identified, Bahen says that Transcan is “very aggressive” in pursuing a property that it wants. The company wants to develop a number of centers by 2010, so land acquisition is always at the forefront of its activities.

“I’m in the development business, so I will continue to develop shopping centers as long as I’m able,” says Bahen. “California has the fifth largest economy in the world, it is a great place to develop and it’s growing rapidly.”

To locate its centers in the best possible areas, Transcan looks years ahead. It is looking at growing markets for infill sites, as well as at future markets.

“We look for good freeway exposure and access, good household income, and growth possibilities for the area,” says Bahen.

In its pipeline already, Transcan is developing both infill centers and those in new areas. County Crossings and Canyon Crossings are both infill projects where the land has sat vacant while the communities grew up around it. California Crossings, meanwhile, is in an area so new that the highway planned to access it hasn’t been finished yet. It is this kind of working ahead that will land Transcan ahead of the game.

©2005 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.