Sparks retailers find synergy in clusters

A whole flock of big box retailers are gathering along Pyramid Highway at Los Altos Parkway.

Kohl's is already there.Wal-Mart is on the way.Mid-size and smaller retailers are trailing in after them.

They come from everywhere some from out of town, some relocating from older centers, some adding to an existing presence.

It's synergy, says Gina Albanese, an associate with CB Richard Ellis Retail Properties Group in Reno.

That's what creates the clusters.

And the clusters have the potential of starting a ripple of change, says Paul Curtis, general manager of Kiley Ranch North, an 808-acre master-planned community being developed north of the cluster.He's experiencing some of the early ripple effects as he approaches groundbreaking on his multi-use project.

As retailers gather, typically the big boxes take the lead.

They come in heavily supported by research data on population, household income, and traffic flow.

The big boxes converging on the intersection at Los Altos Parkway are duly impressed by the numbers for the Los Altos / Pyramid Highway area, a region sometimes called the Spanish Springs market.Defined by McCarran on the south and the hilltop rims east and west, the area draws from a population of about 44,700 as of June 2004, says Brian Bonnenfant, a geographic information systems program manager for the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Reno.

And that population, adds Bonnenfant, is one that sells the area to retailers.

It includes about 15,350 households,with a median household income of $76,213.

The area's population is growing, too, at a rate of 9.72 percent annually.

But the number that gets the retailers to sign on the dotted line, says Bonnenfant, is the number of residences in the pipeline approved but unbuilt as yet.

They number 11,948.

The big boxes come, also, because of the major arteries leading to their front doors.

And already, the area is counting a traffic flow of more than 25,000 vehicles per day.

Three years ago, says Curtis, the Kiley Ranch North group analyzed the retail need in the area."There was a dearth of retail," he says.

So, he included enough retail space in his master plan to accommodate the community's future residents.

But that was before, he says.And this is now.

Regional retailers the big boxes like Wal-Mart,Home Depot and CostCo that can stand alone are on their way in,with the Wal-Mart supercenter already under construction, and Home Depot and Costco are slated to be open by early 2006 as anchors in Sparks Galleria, a project of Tanamera Commercial Development of Reno.

Community commercial is right behind, with stores such as Best Buy, Old Navy, and PetSmart poised to go into Sparks Crossing, under development by Alabama-based AIG Baker just across the highway from Kohl's and Wal-Mart.

The way the cluster is developing is exactly what Sparks wanted, says Randy Mellinger, Sparks assistant city manager.

The major centers in the cluster will bring in upwards of 1.5 million square feet of retail all adjacent to each other, all designed as lifestyle centers.

All energized by synergism.

The retailers will provide a commercial center for the entire Spanish Springs and Sparks area.

It may even pull from northwest Reno.And the benefit of that, says Mellinger, is less travel to south Reno's malls; reduced congestion on Highway 395; possibly a slowdown of the dollar leakage to California's shopping malls.

The expansion of large and small retail into the area is good for the population and traffic flow, says Curtis.

Its effect on Kiley Ranch North is in the development's timing more than anything else, he adds.

Originally,when he was mapping out the industrial, commercial and residential segments of the development, he planned to develop the commercial acreage early.

Now, with groundbreaking on the first of Kiley Ranch North residential villages just weeks away, he's pushing the retail development back.

"Just a year and a half ago there was a huge demand for retail," he says."Now, many of those needs are being satisfied down the street."

For a master-planned community developer, he adds, that's not bad news."At the end of the day, you want to build what works."

The rapid development at Pyramid and Los Altos is shaping what's going to work at Kiley Ranch North.

The pattern of development on Pyramid Highway is typical, adds Joel Grace, Colliers International associate in retail properties.

"You'll see the big ones come in, then the smaller." Adds Albanese: Everyone wants the same demographic the shopper with discretionary income.

So, it makes sense for the inline retailers to ride the coat-tails of the big boxes.And they do.