Somerton pushes ahead with Park View Commercial Center project
City Council could give final approval to plan next month
SOMERTON – A proposed commercial complex the city hopes would spur growth on Somerton’s west side could be presented to the city council next month for final approval.
The site of the Park View Commercial Center cover nearly 20 acres at 1290 W. Main St. It is part of 55 acres of land purchased in 2017 by the city with the goal of luring developers to the area.
Plans call for the Park View site to be split into eight lots, one of which would be a 4.4-acre lot reserved for a 24,000-squarefoot, two-story medical clinic that Sunset Health plans to build to serve the area.
A second lot, 4.2 acres in size, has been reserved by a private deverloper planning to build two commercial buildings.
Hector Tapia, Somerton’s economic director, said talks are in progress with a hotel chain to build a hotel on a third lots, while the remaining lots could be offered individually to developers or as one for a large-scale project.
A preliminary map of the project was presented recently to the Somerton City Council, and Tapia said it could be brought back to the council for final approval as soon as March 16.
“For nearly a year and a half we have been working on this project,” Tapia said. “It’s approved, you see a lot of construction activity on the west side of the city by the end of the year or beginning in 20221. It’s a project that is going to help to interest more investors in coming to Somerton.
“This shopping center is going to biggest ever built in Somerton,” Tapia said. “The plan is to register the subdivision with the county in April and immediately begin to prepare the land for lot sales and to put in the infrastructure.”
The cost of utility lines and paving has yet to be determined, he said, but the city would share it with developers.
Tapia said the city this summer expects to begin construction of a sewer lift station that would serve the commercial development as well as other developments.
Near the commercial center are the site of a future Somerton high school and a future elementary school, he noted.