Plan unveiled for old Factory Stores at the Y location

"The Factory Stores at the Y" will soon be transformed into "The Crossing at Tahoe Valley" if the plan is approved by the City of South Lake Tahoe. In January, 2015, The Sutter Capital Group of Sacramento announced they had purchased the property after it fell into bankruptcy. Since then, Sutter has been working on plans to incorporate the recently approved Tahoe Valley Area Plan into their concept to incorporate nature, outdoor seating and retail into the busy corner spot where an estimated 50,000 vehicles can pass by daily.

"We are aiming to curate the optimal tenant mix which in our mind certainly includes restaurant concepts, particularly on the communal patio end caps," Burke Fathy, Managing Partner of Sutter Capital Group, told South Tahoe Now.

"We will see what types of tenants step forward now that we are formally marketing the new project," said Fathy. He said the current tenants, Big 5, Bank of America, Pearl Izumi, Style for Less and Bass, all plan to stay.

Once the plans are submitted and approved, Fathy said they expect to break ground in Spring of 2016 and be completed by Fall of the same year.

“Over the last several months we have engaged with the local community to better understand what community members would like to see at the property and have integrated that feedback into the project design,” explained Burke Fathy. “The mountain contemporary architectural aesthetic of the project is designed to create an attractive and inviting environment and we are keenly focused on curating the optimal tenant mix.”

A comprehensive renovation will be involved, including new mountain-contemporary building facades, environmentally appropriate landscape design improvements, new elevated branding and signage, enhanced vehicular and pedestrian access and the construction of a large communal outdoor patio with open seating areas, fire pit and an elevated event stage.

The communal patio will connect The Crossing to the existing bicycle pathway behind the property and future location of the planned Tahoe Valley Area Plan Green Belt project, providing an enhanced level of access to The Crossing for both Lake Tahoe residents and visitors.

Fathy added that the real estate investment firm is particularly focused on selecting the appropriate community-driven restaurant concepts to occupy the spaces which will face onto the communal patio to fully activate that area as a both a project and community amenity.

“We will be marketing the project for lease over the coming months and are excited to be moving forward to reposition and reinvigorate the property,” says Fathy.

In a recent interview with John Hitchcock, the City of South Lake Tahoe's Planning Manager, he said that many upcoming large projects were waiting for the new Memo of Understanding (MOU) with TRPA to take place. Now with that signed, the City can now approve projects that involve less than 40,000 square feet of new commercial floor space without the project going through TRPA. Hitchcock didn't say the factory stores were one of those projects, but he did say many plans are being made for projects in the Tahoe Valley Area Plan.

Fathy said he has been in regular contact with the City and they support their plans.