The store is being built at the northeast corner of Monte Vista Drive and Bundy Canyon Road, just east of Interstate 15. Plans call for a 185,682-square-foot retail center that is expected to bring expanded shopping options to local residents, including groceries, pharmacy services, household essentials and other everyday items.

The project has been in the works for years. Although the site received approval back in 2015, development did not move forward at the time and the project faced the possibility of losing its entitlements. Over the last year, city officials said efforts were made to work with the property owner and developer to help move the long-delayed project toward construction.

City leaders are describing the new store as one of the most significant private investments in Wildomar to date. In addition to adding retail services, the development is expected to generate hundreds of construction and permanent jobs while helping strengthen the city’s tax base.

Wildomar has seen steady growth since officially incorporating in 2008. Once a smaller community with limited retail and commercial development, the city has expanded considerably over the years. Recent Census estimates show the population has grown substantially since cityhood, while the local landscape has continued to add more businesses, medical services and commercial centers.

Officials say the Walmart project fits into broader efforts to support economic development and improve access to shopping opportunities within the city. Its location along the Monte Vista Drive and Bundy Canyon Road corridor is also seen as important, as the area serves as a key entry point into Wildomar and has been the focus of ongoing infrastructure and transportation improvements.

No official completion date for the new store has been announced.

If you want, I can also make this more “front page newspaper” style with a stronger headline and tighter local-news tone.

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Lands where the border wall was constructed during the Trump Administration will be restored to protect wildlife habitat following a legal settlement between the U.S. government and attorneys general for 18 states.

“The Trump Border Wall is officially a relic of the past, which is where it belongs,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement Monday announcing the deal.

In 2019 and 2020, a California-led coalition of states sued the Trump Administration over its alleged illegal diversion of taxpayer funds to construct a border wall in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the border wall’s construction to proceed while the lawsuit was adjudicated.

The Ninth Circuit Court has now issued two judgments that found the Trump Administration unlawfully diverted funds to build a wall along the country’s southern border. During Trump’s term, his administration appropriated about $15 billion for the wall’s construction — much of it from the Department of Defense budget.

About 458 miles of the wall were built during Trump’s four years in office, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The wall was primarily made from concrete with steel bollards that measured 18- to 30-feet tall. Almost half of the wall was built in Arizona. Another 100 miles were constructed in New Mexico, 55 miles were built in Texas and 77 miles were completed in California.

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that immediately halted construction.

As part of the newly announced legal settlement, the Biden Administration has agreed to end construction of border barriers with the contested taxpayer funds and to remediate lands damaged by the border wall that had been built. The administration will also restore $427 million in funding for military construction projects in many of the states that brought the lawsuits, including California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The settlement provides $25 million to California to either be used by an environmental nonprofit to purchase 1,200 acres of ecologically sensitive land near the U.S.-Mexico border or to fund environmental mitigation projects in San Diego County.

The Department of Homeland Security will provide $1.1 million to monitor a handful of federally endangered species, including Peninsular Bighorn Sheep, ocelots and jaguars. The Department will also install wildlife passages for endangered species along the existing border barrier but includes provisions for their closure if border security is compromised.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Construction has started on a $898.6 million station that will directly connect Los Angeles International Airport to the region’s light rail and bus transportation systems, solving a decades-old problem.

The Airport Metro Connector will connect with an automated people mover train being built to carry people to and from the airport’s terminals.

A ceremony was held on Monday to mark the start of construction.

“This groundbreaking is a pivotal milestone in our effort to give residents and visitors alike real alternatives to sitting in traffic,” said

Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin, who is also on the board of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The station will have platforms to access Metro light rail trains, a bus plaza, a drop-off zone for travelers, a bicycle hub and commercial space.

The airport is in the midst of a massive multibillion-dollar makeover.

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“This project represents one of the few opportunities to develop much-needed logistics product in Southern California,” explained Shopoff Realty Investments President and Chief Executive Officer William Shopoff. “We believe this state-of-the-art logistics center with I-10 freeway access will be in high demand as users continue to require large buildings to meet demand.”

Mark Strauss and Rob Quarton from Walker Dunlap represented Shopoff and Artemis in securing the $105 million construction loan with Bank OZK.

“Bank OZK is delighted to provide senior-secured construction financing for the I-10 Logistics Center, a project with strong market fundamentals and top-tier sponsorship,” added Jason Choulochas, regional director of originations at Bank OZK’s real estate specialties group. “We appreciate the opportunity to work with Shopoff and Artemis on this project and look forward to a very successful execution.”

Set on 155 acres, the I-10 Logistics Center project includes two high cube logistics/warehouses buildings that have been designed to be eligible for LEED Silver Certification. Building one will cover approximately 814,822 square feet of space and building two will cover approximately 1,017,845 square feet of space, for a total of 1,832,667 square feet of floor area. The project will feature 40-foot clear-height ceilings, 665 employee parking spots, 585 trailer parking spots and 296 dock high doors.

CBRE will represent the property. Darla J. Longo, CBRE Vice Chairman and Managing Director added, “Upon completion this will be the highest quality product of its kind in the market, and we are thrilled to be able to represent Shopoff and Artemis, bringing this stellar new offering to the market.”

With construction financing now secured, site development will commence in April 2021 with construction anticipated to be completed in summer 2022.

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Back in September the Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD), awarded the contract for the Basin Project, which is on a 39-acre site at the west corner of Mountain Avenue and Esplanade Avenue. The proposed project was fairly large in scale and entailed an excavation of nearly 368,000 cubic yards. That, according to the EMWD would be an estimated 29,000 truckloads that would have to be hauled out of the construction site and then hauled back in. The proposed route to the stockpile ran through Mountain Avenue, Lake Park Drive, and Soboba Road, all within the boundaries of San Jacinto.

When council was first presented this project it was concerned about certain aspects of the basin project, especially noise, dust, and the impact of the haul trucks to the already deteriorated pavement along Mountain Avenue. The City had already planned a pavement restoration project but was concerned the hauling and loading of the trucks would cause damage that would negate  weakened pavements or merit another replacement of that pavement.

As a response, the EMWD Assistant General Manager Joe Moauwad proposed that EMWD would mitigate the haul’s impact to Mountain Avenue by contributing to the Pavement Project. Since then, the City Engineer’s office and EMWD staff have worked together to arrive at the sum of $111,714 to be contributed to the restoration. City Engineering staff also performed a new pavement assessment, and the EMWD adjusted the proposed haul route to avoid as much of the distressed pavement as possible. In regards to the dust, mitigation measures will be incorporated into the contractor’s haul permit conditions, which provides the City with the ability to suspend or revoke the haul permit if the contractor does not comply with the mitigation measures.

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