Merced developer envisions thriving shopping plaza off of Highway 99
A local developer envisions Campus Parkway in the southeast side of Merced becoming the best exit off Highway 99 in the Central Valley.
The goal is to create a new standard for Merced, attracting out-of-town revenue and enhancing the local economy by developing a shopping plaza eventually anchored by an entertainment venue, a hotel and surrounding retail shops, restaurants and offices.
The developer, Daniel Moradzadeh, director of the Merced-based Shemoil’s Investment Development, is currently finishing a 133-room Hilton Garden Inn, a $36 million project, scheduled to open in late summer or early fall this year.
The five-story hotel serves as the gem of 8.3 acre Campus Parkway Plaza I, which already has a Chevron gas station and convenience store. Moradzadeh said there is a “strong possibility we’re going to secure Dunkin Donuts” to a lease next to Chevron. There are four other pods near the hotel he’s looking to lease.
According to Moradzadeh, once he secures two other leases in Campus Parkway Plaza I, he’ll begin making the engineering improvements needed to make the 17 acres located across Campus Parkway, earmarked as Campus Parkway Plaza II, as a lot ready for development.
“I would like to see something similar to what they did with River Park in Fresno, how that specific outdoor mall kind of kicked off development all the way into Clovis and Fresno,” Moradzadeh said. “ I’m not saying that this going to be the same scale as River Park or a shopping center like that, but it would be nice to set the standard.”
The design plan for Campus Parkway Plaza II hangs on the wall next to Moradzadeh’s desk in his office. It’s the first thing he sees every time he walks in the door.
He aims to bring high-end vendors with staying power, restaurants and other businesses that will be new to Merced.
“There’s a whole array of possibilities,” he said. “It just it takes time to find the right potential group that wants to come in. I’d like to see maybe something similar to a Bass Pro Shop, possibly a Sam ’s Club, or a Trader Joe’s. It could be a stand alone Nike or Levi’s outlet, whatever fits the best that can sustain itself and be successful.”
Morazadeh said he wants to see one of the draws of Campus Parkway Plaza II to be an entertainment type venue like a movie theater, bowling alley, ice skating rink or some other entertainment center. Another hotel development could also be built in the plaza.
“I’d like to see it to where people from other areas, whether it be Madera, all the way into Turlock, to start coming to our area for some of the nicer amenities, hopefully some of the recreational aspects that will come to Merced,” he said. “It’s definitely needed.”
The challenge will be convincing some of these high-end businesses and restaurant chains to invest in Merced. According to Morazadeh many of these companies want to operate in city’s with populations over 100,000 people and a household income at a certain level.
According to World Population Review, Merced’s population in 2025 is 98,224 and the average yearly household income is $81,691, according to Point2Homes.
“It’s just gonna take a little bit of time before we get to like the per capita equation that these corporate businesses want,” Morazadeh said. “They want a household income at a certain level. They want the population at a certain level. I think once we get to that threshold it’s kind of like the domino tipping over the bigger domino.”
According to Morazadeh, it’s tough to put a timeline on the projects. He’s taking his time to find the right companies to lease the land at Campus Parkway Plaza I.
He said it’ll be fine if it takes 10 years to get the right plan, the right tenants if everybody was happy and meeting their economic targets. Obviously he’d like it to happen faster.
“I’m willing to wait and get it right,” he said. “There’s nothing worse than businesses coming in and just it doesn’t work out. As a developer, you can provide the land, you can provide the buildings, but you know what, it’s the individual operators in the community that actually figure out what’s going to work there or what’s not, and that takes a little bit of time.”
