Was That Number Right?

I have great respect for the editors at The Signal. They are normally very fastidious about their work. However, I’m sure they wrote the wrong number when they said Centennial is planning to build 2,550 housing units in the Valencia Town Center, commonly known as the mall. Your number doesn’t need a comma. Surely it is 255, which would make perfect sense. After all, Centennial is claiming to use the Americana in Glendale as its model. The Americana, a beautiful development by Rick Caruso, has 100 condos and 242 luxury apartments. At 111 square acres for our mall, 250-350 apartments/condos seems a reasonable number considering the additional 630,000 square feet of commercial space. I suggest that Centennial uses the Madison apartments on Town Center Drive as their architectural model for continuity and classic style.

If they are serious about the 2,550 number, how many stories would the buildings be? Where would the 5,000-plus people park? How would people coming to the mall handle the gridlock of traffic? With this density of development, is Centennial trying to turn Awesometown into Koreatown?

Larry Moore

Valencia Editor's note: The number is correct. However, our March 6 story didn’t say Centennial “wants” to build that many units, though conceivably it could. Nothing is cast in stone yet. The current incarnation of the Valencia Town Center Specific Plan lists development caps of 2,563 residential units and 631,000 square feet of net new commercial. The master plan is not just for the mall itself — it’s to encompass 111 acres bounded by Magic Mountain Parkway, Mcbean Parkway and Valencia Boulevard, plus a "sub-area" including the city’s transit center just west of the intersection of Valencia and Mcbean.