In Vacaville, retail is booming

The 2019 holiday shopping season is fast approaching and despite more high-profile retail bankruptcies this year, not all shopping centers are suffering. Take the newly refurbished and re-positioned Power Plaza in Vacaville, as a prime example.

Though largely neglected for several years, the center was purchased late last year by ProEquity Asset Management, a full service commercial real estate investment firm willing to invest in retaining existing anchors Sprouts Farmers Market and Restoration Hardware Outlet as well as lure a major new anchor to the property. This week, ProEquity and its leasing agent, JLL, did just that securing a lease for 17,500 square feet at Power Plaza with Williams-Sonoma Home Outlet. This will be the first Williams Sonoma Home Outlet on the West Coast.

“Having a popular brand like Williams-Sonoma join the existing anchors is a major boost to our leasing efforts for the small amount of shop space remaining within Power Plaza,” says John Brecher, a Vice President in JLL’s retail division. Brecher and his partner Dave White, also a JLL V.P., handle leasing on behalf of the owner.

“Power Plaza is well positioned within the market, it just needed a high-quality ownership group to make the investment to bring the center back to relevance,” White adds.

Power Plaza sits next to the Vacaville Premium Outlets, which hosts more than 120 stores including global brands such as Nike, Under Armour, Banana Republic, Polo Ralph Lauren and Kate Spade. Other nearby retail stores include Target, Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and Marshalls. The center has excellent visibility from, and access to, Interstate 80 one of the heaviest traveled highways in Northern California with more than 146,000 cars a day passing by.

Power Plaza was almost a third vacant when ProEquity acquired the center in 2018 but that has shrunk to just 10 percent following the improvements to retail facades and landscaping. The center has slightly more than 11,000 square feet of available space spread between six vacant retail shop suites, the largest of which is 3,600 square feet. Other tenants in Power Plaza include Sleep First, Leslie’s Poolmart, Togo’s Eatery, Sprint Wireless and Baskin Robbins.

The success of the retail sector in and around Vacaville is also evident in the area’s employment numbers. Currently, job sites like Indeed.com list more than 1,000 full-time and 800 part time and temporary retail positions looking to be filled in the 20 mile stretch of I-80 between Fairfield, Vacaville and Dixon.