Richmond, Prologis Share Differing Plans for Hilltop Mall

The defunct Hilltop Mall in Richmond could become a sprawling mixed-use community if the city’s plans get the green light.

City officials have filed plans to turn the 143-acre site into thousands of new homes, retail, entertainment, dining and commercial space, the San Francisco Business Times reported. Prologis owns a majority of the site including the 78-acre mall and is jockeying for less dense housing as it might be more financially attainable amid current market conditions.

“We need feasibility. Redeveloping this Hilltop Mall is a once-in-a-generation opportunity, and it’s a highly complex project to build out,” Janet Galvez, an investment officer with Prologis, told city officials, per the Business Times. “The market is not ripe right now. It’s actually one of the toughest markets to do new business in today because of interest rates [and] tariffs.”

Prologis bought the mall in 2021 for $117 million. At the time, the developer looked to build housing as well as industrial spaces on the site, though it’s since tweaked its plans to turn it into a residential center with a mix of types of housing that would be less dense overall. The city of Richmond has been working on the Hilltop Horizon Specific Plan, which would serve as a blueprint for any future development, since that same year when the mall shuttered.

The City of Richmond is looking to build a dense urban hub with high-rise apartments, entertainment, retail and commercial space at the center and density decreasing down to about two to three stories in the surrounding acres. The high-rises could be as tall as 135 feet, and there could be between 80 to 200 housing units per acre to help the city meet its state-mandated housing goals.

Prologis, on the other hand, is hoping for mid-density and transitional zoning at the site, with options of about 15 to 40 and 30 to 80 units per acre. It lobbied the city to build a variety of housing types rather than pursue what it called “unrealistic minimum density.”

The city of Richmond is on the hook to build 3,614 new housing units by 2031 as part of its Housing Element.

Final land-use plans for the Hilltop Mall site won’t be approved until next year at the earliest with groundbreaking likely years away. The city and stakeholders are compiling feedback before finalizing and adopting the Hilltop Horizon Specific Plan next year.

— Chris Malone Méndez