The first 700 of apartments planned for River Islands at Lathrop are targeted to break ground in 2023.
“Our goal is to have the apartments in design in 2022 and building started in 2023,” noted River Islands President Susan Dell’Osso.
Ultimately there will be 5,000 apartments built in the 15,001-home planned community on 4,800 acres.
The apartments concentrated in three different locations on the edge of the community are the linchpin of a strategy to create thriving town centers including one built as a transit village along the rail line that will serve Valley Link to connect to Lathrop to BART in 2028.
By having 2,000 or so residents within easy walking distance clustered around— and in some cases above — walkable commercial ventures, River Islands is aiming for a built in “neighborhood” clientele to attract trendy restaurants, entertainment venues, specialty shops and services.
Given all three clusters are on the edge of the development and at three of the four only access points planned to the island, the residents of traditional detached homes being developed in the neighborhoods on the island’s interior will be funneled by the areas.
It is part of an overall strategy to eschew traditional small box and strip center development.
Even the three possible grocery stores that ultimately may end up on River Islands will be more in the vein of “entertainment” stores envisioned to have wine bars, and various specialty offerings.
“With online retail changing the dynamics you are going see stores designed a lot differently,” Dell’Osso said.
She believes the existing SaveMart in Lathrop and the soon-to-be-built Sprouts Market when coupled with Costco in Manteca will address larger grocery store shopping needs for the island’s residents.
The transit village will be away from traditional neighborhood and instead on the edge of the island where a business park is planned.
Cambay Group intends to retain ownership of the apartments to assure continuity in upkeep and development patterns they have orchestrated with the project that started nearly 30 years ago.
The future River Islands high school will be located on Paradise Road on 46 acres. The campus will be open with two-story classroom wings, career technical education buildings and a gymnasium. A later phase of construction will include classrooms and a smaller gymnasium on campus. Also in a later phase, a stadium will be built next to Islanders Field in the future Town Center area.
The cost of the high school is estimated at $144 million and expected to break ground in April of 2022 with doors opening to students in 2023.
The stadium for the high school will be built by the baseball field and soccer complex now in place by the town center where the first apartments will be built.
That will allow for more robust community use of the football stadium sporting events and activities such as car shows as well as to encourage game day — or game night — crowds to access future restaurants in the town center.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
