Work begins on Riverbank’s Crossroads West. New housing, retail coming to expansion
Fields once filled with oats and alfalfa soon will be packed with new homes and roadways as work on Riverbank’s long-planned Crossroads West development is finally underway.
The expansion of the popular Crossroads shopping center and community has started in earnest as big machines are on site preparing the first phase of a planned new housing development on the former farmland. The ambitious mixed-use development will include single-family homes, multifamily dwellings and a commercial retail center.
Stockton-based developer FCB Homes has been tapped as the project builder by Randy High Jr., who is overseeing his family’s interest in the project as majority landowners. High’s family owns close to 240 acres in the overall 380-acre development, which will ultimately include neighborhoods, a school, a fire station, community parks, a sports center and a shopping complex
The land, previously filled with crop fields, a large dairy and some ranchettes, has been prepared for work to begin. Existing structures across the development have been torn down, and ground leveling and underground work is underway.
The first phase will be the plot directly north of Crawford Road to the west of Oakdale Road. When finished, the section will have 91 single-family homes ranging from two bedrooms to five bedrooms. Site work is starting now. By July, model homes should start going up.
First phase of Riverbank housing development started
FCB Homes President Tom Doucette, whose company has developed local projects including The Vineyard and The Arbors in Oakdale, said families could start moving into homes in Crossroads West by the end of the year.
“Crossroads West will be the first master-plan community in this area that offers more in terms of amenities and other projects,” Doucette said. “The amenity package for homeowners in terms of open space, landscaping, retail and commercial opportunities and recreation is going to make this a very special community. There’s nothing else like it in the region.”
Homes in the first phase will range from 1,900-to-2,300-square feet single-story two- and three-bedroom homes to 2,600-to-3,000-square-feet two-story four- and five-bedroom homes. Prices are expected to start in the high-$400,000 range and go up to the mid-$500,000 range.
This past week, when the first sign announcing work on Crossroads West went up, Doucette said they received 150 phone calls in the first day inquiring about the new development.
High who is managing his Machado family’s portion of the project should ultimately produce some 1,200 single-family homes and around 250 multifamily homes. The Harringfeld family owns around 60 acres farther north of Morrill Road along Oakdale Road near the existing sport park, which is slated to be doubled in size as part of the expansion. The Harringfield plot will accommodate 300 more single-family homes. Work has not yet begun on that phase of the development.
Crossroads West retail complex has not begun construction
Walnut Creek-based Browman Development Company, the same firm behind the popular Crossroads Regional Shopping Center, is handling the commercial development portion of Crossroads West. No plans have been submitted to the city yet for the retail center, which will take up the former site of Dutch Hollow Farms at the corner of Oakdale and Claribel roads.
The commercial expansion is planned to be nearly as large as the original Crossroads it mirrors, with room for 555,000 square feet of new commercial space. The existing retail complex across the road from the new development is a 600,000 square-foot retail center.
For 50 years, the Machado family has owned much of the land, which once held a dairy with some 600 cows. For roughly the past 15 years, his family has been involved in the Crossroads West project as it wound its way through the entitlement process and various city approvals. In early 2019, the plan took a big step forward with the city’s annexation of the 380 acres needed for the development.
“It’s been a long road, we’ve spent a lot of time with the city. I can’t stress enough how fantastic as partners they’ve been from the mayor on down: council, staff and city manager,” High said. “It would be impossible to create what we’ve created in the time we’ve done it without the leadership they’ve provided. I think this will be something unique and lasting.”
Riverbank officials are equally excited about the development breaking ground. Mayor Richard O’Brien said once completed, it should help alleviate some of the housing shortage in the area. He said the long-planned expansion of the Crossroads retail complex, which opened in 2005, should be another economic boon for the city.
“During the last major recession, the Crossroads shopping center was the lifeblood that kept the city alive,” O’Brien said. “As we move forward with development of the commercial site, that will again give us an added cushion during the bleak period that is happening in our economic cycle now.”
High said the second phase of the housing development, to the south of Crawford Road to the west of Oakdale Road, could start by the end of the year. While officials initially thought Crossroads West might see its first phase finished sometime in 2020, Riverbank City Manager Sean Scully said having work underway now is a great sign for things to come.
“It’s good to see something that has been a marathon finally getting to the part of the race where you can cross the finish line,” Scully said. “It will be worth all of the effort when the first couple families move in.”
For more on the Crossroads West development from FCB Homes call 209-957-8112 or visit www.fcbhomes.com.
This story was originally published March 15, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
