BOB WILSON, Valley Press Staff Editor
July 21, 2005
State of city HOT in every way as Real Estate, Business Boom
 
PALMDALE - Land in the city is prized like gold claims in the Old West. Builders are planning new housing projects on nearly every parcel of residential-zoned land in the city's 104 square miles, Mayor Jim Ledford said Wednesday. In addition, a Claim Jumper restaurant could move into the location of the Antelope Valley Mall's existing theaters.
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"We're in a very dynamic environment, and you as businesspeople know that better than anyone else," Ledford told members of the Palmdale Chamber of Commerce. "There isn't any place in the city of Palmdale where there isn't something going on," the major said. "You will have a hard time buying raw land that doesn't have a some kind of map on it for development." That means local businesses will be able to ride the wave of sales that will come with a swelling sea of customers, Ledford said.
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A considerable part of that growth will spring up along Avenue S, which runs east and west, and 10th Street West, which runs north and south. One of the most promising areas is one around the site picked for construction of a new private hospital at 10th Street West and Palmdale Boulevard, Ledford said. Although most people are aware of the plans for the hospital, "What they maybe don't know is that we have approximately 500,000 square feet of office building being processed in and around that hospital site," he said.
 
The Palmdale Auto Center and the mall also are growing, he said. If the Claim Jumper restaurant takes over the theater space, the theaters, in turn, will move to a new stadium-theater complex being constructed northwest of the mall. That theater complex will be near a Hilton Gardens hotel and about seven new restaurants, Ledford said. At 10th Street West and Avenue M, the city is taking steps to develop a new business park on 117 acres it owns on the southeast corner, the mayor continued.
 
When combined with development already under way or recently completed between avenues O and O-8, such efforts "will turn 10th Street West into our Sepulveda Boulevard. It's going to connect the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale in short order." Ledford said.
 
The major also spoke of work on the city's park projects at 40th Street East and Avenue S and at 30th Street West and Rancho Vista Boulevard (Avenue P); the development of the 5,000-home Anaverde housing project at 20th Street West and Avenue S; and plans to attract a light rail or other passenger system to connect the Palmdale Transportation Center to the Palmdale Regional Airport.