The city of Santa Clarita has been waiting for the latest plans for the Valencia Town Center for months, since the owner, Centennial Real Estate Corp., made an eight-figure request for a parking garage that the City Council publicly rebuffed in December.
But that hasn’t stopped city engineers from planning to get ready for all the changes that might come with the $600 million to $650 million the developer is planning to invest in the prime real estate.
The city’s 2025-26 capital improvement budget calls for approximately $3.1 million for the Federal Circulation Improvement Program, which is meant to improve the future traffic flow on Valencia Boulevard, at both Mall Entrance and McBean Parkway.
Recent data indicated the Valencia Boulevard-McBean intersection currently sees approximately 82,000 cars per day on average, making it one of the city’s busiest. So, it’s logical to assume the addition of a couple thousand homes and the retail being planned there will add a significant number of vehicle trips.
“There needs to be some improvements with increased capacity along Valencia to provide a triple-left turn when you get to the intersection of Valencia and McBean,” said Joel Bareng, assistant city engineer, in a recent phone interview. Those improvements also include a right-turn pocket going west, westbound as well, to northbound McBean Parkway, he said.
City officials said Friday the work is being done in anticipation of the mall’s changes. Most of the funding for the project is coming from a federal grant, with the other 20% from a local matching fund.
“The city is working on the portion of the project on public streets — future enhancements may be made on the private property by the developers,” Carrie Lujan, communications manager for the city, wrote Friday in an email.
“The proposed improvements will modify existing medians, striping, signals and asphalt,” she added. “New trees and shrubs will infill the remaining landscaping. The modifications are based on staff’s analysis of traffic volumes and observations of traffic patterns at these intersections.”
A Valencia Town Center renovation has been discussed for years, particularly since Centennial Real Estate Corp. bought the property in 2023. In addition to the new homes, the city’s new framework for the plan envisions approximately 13.77 acres, or 600,000 square feet, set aside for commercial development.
A marketing executive for Centennial reaffirmed that commitment in a statement sent Monday afternoon via email.
“While we don’t have any specific updates to share at this time, we remain supportive of the city of Santa Clarita’s vision and continue to collaborate with them to evolve the shopping center into a vibrant multi-use, live-work-play destination that meets the needs of the community,” according to an email from Colleen Heydon, executive vice president of marketing for Centennial.
It has previously said it’s working “side-by-side” with the city on its framework “to maintain the essence of what Valencia Town Center has always been to the Santa Clarita community and to build upon that to create a transformative and modern mixed-use campus,” according to a December statement.
City officials have said they’re trying to turn the space that a Centennial executive previously referred to as a “retail island” into a thriving destination retail and residential space similar to Irvine Spectrum Center.
The majority of the first phase looks to be commercial, with a 160,000-square-foot Costco set for Magic Mountain Parkway and its accompanying gas station closer to Citrus Street.
The first phase of the development only anticipates 300 homes for seniors from the total 2,200 residential units the city anticipates for the 111 acres in the Town Center Specific Plan Area.
