Things May Start Rolling for Oxnard’s Old Wagon Wheel, Carriage Square

Oxnard city officials are reveling in the sale last week of two prized development properties: the aging Wagon Wheel complex along the Ventura Freeway and Carriage Square Shopping Center on Gonzales Road.

CT Realty Corp. of Newport Beach, in partnership with Messenger/Sandpiper Cos., purchased 15 properties from a trust established by the late developer Martin V. “Bud” Smith for $57 million.

Of all the parcels, the Wagon Wheel Plaza property, a 60-acre commercial and industrial complex just south of the Ventura Freeway and Oxnard Boulevard interchange, is considered the most valuable because of its prime location.

“If you take a look at that particular intersection -- perhaps the most important in the entire city -- it’s now surrounded by new or poised-for-new development,” said Steve Kinney, president of the Economic Development Corp. of Oxnard.

The new Esplanade shopping center is nearby and the recently approved $750-million RiverPark residential and commercial development will be built along the north side of the freeway. The mini-city will include 2,800 homes, a convention center, shops, restaurants and a 600-room hotel on about 700 acres.

That is a significant improvement over half a dozen years ago, when the old Esplanade mall was declining and progress on the planned Oxnard Town Center on the RiverPark site was stalled, Kinney said.

With residential development exploding in north Oxnard, the Carriage Square property also has strong economic potential and like Wagon Wheel is expected to be a top priority for its new owners. The old commercial and office complex has been struggling for years, despite its location at the corner of Oxnard Boulevard and Gonzales Road, one of the busiest intersections in the city.

“The fact that there’s a contemporary developer on the scene with the capital to spend and ideas drawn from the current-day marketplace” means both properties will be improved, Kinney said. “The genius will be in the details.”

Applauding the infusion of cash into the city, Mayor Pro Tem Dean Mulhardt said he will be interested to see how the new owners plan to update the properties, especially Wagon Wheel, which he said was considered a significant project when it was built after World War II. The site includes the historic Wagon Wheel Inn, a bowling alley, mobile homes and warehouses.

“That’s a valuable piece of property. It’s a gateway to the city,” Mulhardt said. “We want to sit down with them and plan something that’s special.”

Mulhardt said Carriage Square, an underutilized neighborhood shopping center, could be rehabilitated or perhaps razed and rebuilt, like the Esplanade farther north. Whatever is decided, he said he hopes a first-rate retail venue will be the result.

“Bud Smith was a tradition in this city and added a lot to [Oxnard] in terms of quality of development ... and I hope CT follows in his tradition,” Mulhardt said.

Matthew Winegar, director of development services in Oxnard, said Smith’s company processed an environmental impact report in the mid-1990s to transform the Wagon Wheel site into an office complex. Anticipating its purchase, CT Realty filed documents with the city last summer supporting that concept, but Winegar expects those plans to change.

“I think they’re reevaluating that now that they’ve acquired the property, maybe looking at a different type of development in light of market conditions,” said Winegar, who thinks it will be several months before CT Realty files a revised application with specifics about its plans.

Robert M. Campbell, president of CT Realty, could not be reached for comment.

The sale also included a few hundred acres of farmland in Oxnard and Santa Maria as well as numerous other retail, industrial, warehouse and self-storage properties.

Whatever new development is considered for the Wagon Wheel property, Councilman John Zaragoza said it must be compatible with the neighboring Esplanade, which underwent a $35-million makeover two years ago, and the massive RiverPark project.

Zaragoza called the Wagon Wheel site “a pretty blighted area” in desperate need of redevelopment.

“I’m just happy that it will be developed again,” Zaragoza said. “It’s a fine commercial area that needs to be brought up to speed.”

Sue VanCamp, president of Martin V. Smith and Associates, declined to discuss the sale of the company’s remaining real estate assets. She said about the only thing left are some railroad tracks and adjoining land in the Oxnard area and that a sale is pending for those properties.