NewMark Merrill Gets OK for Victorville Target Retail Center

NewMark Merrill Companies is moving forward with a Target-anchored shopping center development in Victorville.

NewMark Merrill, in partnership with World Premier Investments and R.Y. Properties, received entitlements to develop Desert Sky Plaza II, a 30-acre, 297,400-square-foot shopping center at the corner of Roy Rogers Drive and Amargosa Road in Victorville, Bisnow reported.

NewMark is expected to start construction in the second quarter of this year with an opening planned for fall 2027.

The development will be anchored by Target and Burlington stores. Desert Sky Plaza is roughly 70 percent pre-committed, the outlet said. Space is still available for a junior anchor, drive-thru, car wash and retail tenants looking for between 1,500 and 25,000 square feet.

Desert Sky Plaza I is anchored by Home Depot and sits east of the proposed site. Desert Sky Plaza II is expected to bring in more than 6.5 million annual visitors once open, per Placer data cited by Victor Valley News.

The forthcoming project will be part of a roughly 100-acre commercial development known as The Desert Plazas.

Once complete, the site will include more than 800,000 square feet of retail space. The shopping center is located in a growth market with more than 22,500 new homes either approved or under development, according to Victor Valley News.

Elsewhere in Victorville, near Interstate 15, another retail property attracted investor interest earlier this year. A private investor purchased the Victorville Pavilion Shops, spanning 11,600 square feet, from another private investor for $6.1 million, or about $525 per square foot, Shopping Center Business reported. That property, built in 2004, was fully occupied at the time of sale with tenants like T-Mobile and an Armed Forces Career Center.

Retail space is scarce across the country, and development is limited, according to Kidder Matthews. The retail vacancy rate in Los Angeles was 5.6 percent at the end of last year, when just 559,000 square feet was under construction, a 38 percent drop from the year before.

— Chris Malone Méndez