Pomona Will Gain Major Development : Multi-Million Dollar Commercial Projects to Be Built in City

One of the Southland’s premier radio traffic reporters, describing some horrendous glitch on the Pomona Freeway, affects a pseudo-Southern accent and calls it the “Po’ Mona.”

But the city certainly can’t be called Po’ Mona, with two huge commercial developments in the works for a total of well over $250 million.

The larger is University Corporate Center, a master-planned business park now under construction that will have 1.4 million square feet of buildings on 50 acres and will be valued at about $200 million on completion.

The other is the Inland Pacific World Trade Center, an office, hotel, retail and cultural complex projected to cost $66 million and scheduled to go into construction in the fall. (See separate story in adjoining column.)

University Corporate Center is designed to contain at least 1.4 million square feet of buildings for corporate offices and research-and-development facilities.

The 50-acre site is at the confluence of the San Bernardino (10), Foothill (210) and Orange (57) freeways and the Corona (71) Expressway. It was originally part of the Arabian Horse Ranch of W. K. Kellogg and has been in the hands of governmental agencies until recently; the developers call it one of the last “truly distinctive” undeveloped parcels in Southern California.

Phase 1 will consist of two buildings totaling 147,715 square feet on an 8.4-acre site. The larger building will offer 87,967 square feet and the other, 59,748 square feet. There will be parking for 522 cars. The buildings are under construction, and completion is scheduled for August.

Build-out of the entire eight-building complex is expected about 1990. The developer is a partnership of the Macklin Cos. of Newport Beach and Phil Four Twelve, a Howard Ahmanson Jr. company based in Irvine. The partnership plans to continue to own and manage the center.

The master plan was developed by Steward Voeltz, a Macklin vice president, with the assistance of POD Inc. of Santa Ana, which is also the project’s landscape designer.

The general contractor for all the site improvements is Sully/Miller Co. of Long Beach. The architect for the Phase 1 buildings is Leason Pomeroy Associates of Orange; they are being built by Davcon Inc. of Tustin.

The Phase 1 buildings are being offered for lease, with tenant improvements to be made as required, through Coldwell Banker Commercial Real Estate Services, City of Industry. Buildings in future phases can be designed and built to suit the lessees, and any or all can be accelerated to meet a lessee’s requirements.

The developers call the corporate center a “self-contained environment,” designed in total, with buildings, roads, open spaces and parking areas complementing the center’s “sense of place.” They plan to spend more than $1.4 million on landscape design and construction, street scapes and outdoor amenities.

One feature of the center will be a helistop capable of accommodating any size of corporate helicopter.

The plan includes an underground network connecting all buildings, capable of handling sophisticated future communication equipment as needs and technologies emerge, while being completely state-of-the-art for today’s usages.

Another feature, considered of particular importance by the developers, is security for companies engaged in high-technology or defense work. All areas of the center will be covered by a total security system.

A spokesman for the developer called the University Corporate Center a “beacon pointing to a ‘new tomorrow’ in Pomona,” spurring a “renaissance” in the city, with plans for other new developments being announced.