The Riverside Press-Enterprise
7-story apartment building makes its Mark downtown
Where Market Street and Mission Inn Avenue meet is arguably the most prominent intersection in downtown Riverside, the one where you’re most likely to hang a left or gape at the 1929 landmark Fox Theater.
Now there’s a modern landmark too. The Mark, a seven-story apartment building, newly occupies a square block bounded by Sixth, Market, Mission Inn and an alley.
I was inside looking out the street-level windows onto Market — from cavernous, unfinished retail space with a 25-foot ceiling — as traffic flowed by. The Food Lab and the electronic marquee for the Fox Performing Arts Center were in full view across the street.
“This corner is the spot,” said Michelle Rubin, whose company developed
The Mark and who was touring me around. “It is THE corner here in Riverside.”
As a downtown devotee, I wouldn’t argue. (Tyler and Magnolia, however, might say: “Hold my beer.”)
Well, if Market and Mission Inn wasn’t the corner before, it might be now. The Mark has three levels of underground parking; 20,000 square feet at ground level for shops, restaurants and offices; and six stories above with 165 apartments.
It’s not the tallest building downtown — the Marriott and the California Tower are both 12 stories, for instance — but The Mark is among the tallest.
“We think it’s going to add a lot to the neighborhood,” said Rubin, president of Regional Properties Inc. “All in, this was an $80 million investment to build this.”
That’s a big bet on downtown’s urban future.
My colleague David Downey wrote about The Mark last summer as construction was nearing a close. He told of how this project was the last envisioned by builder Mark Rubin, who died in 2021, and then was seen through to near-fruition by Rubin’s daughter. It’s named The Mark in Rubin’s memory.
Now that the construction fencing is down, I wanted to see the building for myself. Not that you can avoid seeing it; it’s inescapable. I mean I wanted to see the interior.
The ribbon-cutting, alas, had already taken place. Oops. Had I, in a manner of speaking, missed The Mark? It wouldn’t be the first time.
Then came the State of the City ad
dress Jan. 26, when an Innovation Award, the city’s first, was given posthumously to Mark Rubin in recognition of his myriad projects around Riverside. Michelle Rubin accepted it.
We were introduced afterward. The Mark isn’t open yet, but prospective tenants should be able to make appointments shortly, with move-ins in March.
Whew! I had not missed The Mark after all. (Though to be fair, The Mark is hard to miss.)
One of its more striking elements isn’t new at all. The 1926 facade that wraps around Mission Inn and Market was preserved.
Architect G. Stanley Wilson, who was behind parts of the Mission Inn, created this facade for what was then the Stalder Building to unite three disparate occupants. The Old Riverside Foundation wanted the facade saved. The Rubins agreed.
The blend of old and new is positive, I think. You get not only a very modern building — with brick, stucco and metal sidings — but an ornate old frontage that conveys street-level charm.
The Old Riverside Foundation’s Ruth West told me that though some don’t care for the building, “I think it looks great.”
Inside the ground-level space, a few bricks from the original, pre-wilson facade were stacked in a pile. “You can have one,” Rubin told me dryly. Everyone in Riverside wants to give me 19th-century bricks.
(The alley behind The Mark was created by the 1990 demolition of the Golden State Theater, which was the source of the other recent pile of bricks in my life. Every topic in this space connects somehow.)
We rode the elevator to the third floor. Outside is a swimming pool, open to the sky. Apartments surround it on two sides.
“You can actually live on the pool deck,” Rubin said. The original facade tops out on that level, and there’s a good view of the Fox.
Better views of the Fox are still to come. The sixth-floor deck is level with the Fox tower and the Mission Inn dome. The flag and cross atop Mount Rubidoux stand out sharply.
For fireworks shows on Fourth of July and Festival of Lights, Rubin said, The Mark is going to be a popular viewing area.
To get to the rooftop, she suggested we take the stairs. As a fan of stairs, I pumped my fist.
We were soon atop the seventh floor. Tenants will have use of an outdoor kitchen, a fire pit and, if they can stand it, a glass balcony.
“Pick a freeway,” Rubin said as we gazed in all directions. “You can check out the traffic from here.”
Tenants won’t necessarily need to use freeways. The building is almost self-contained with communal workspaces, a gym, a sports lounge and plenty to do within walking distance.
The apartments include enormous washers and dryers, big closets, walkin showers — and possibly the last new gas hookups in Riverside.
Apartments will rent from about $2,100 to $4,400, pricing Rubin called “something for everyone,” which I guess is true as long as you have at least $2,100.
The Riverside metro area is growing faster than Texas, Florida or Tennessee, she pointed out. “They’re coming here because it’s a nice place to live and it’s affordable,” she said. “We can’t build it fast enough.”
Apartment construction downtown, in her view, isn’t keeping up, despite several prominent projects, some with mixed uses, since 2018: Imperial Hardware Lofts (six floors, 89 units), Mission Lofts (four floors, 212 units) and Main + Nine (five floors, 36 units).
Developer Andrew Walcker, who’s working on several projects downtown, told me of The Mark: “It’s a game changer, an absolute game changer in Riverside. It’s far superior to any of the previous projects built in the downtown corridor. A beautiful building. It’s set the bar high.”
Seven stories high.
briefly
This spate of nights with temperatures near freezing might bring back memories for anyone of a certain age who grew up in the Inland Empire. In short: Fire up the smudge pots!