For years, shoppers have been kept from zipping between Gilroy’s
two major shopping meccas
– 10th Street’s big-box retailers and the Gilroy Premium Outlets
off Leavesley Road – by an undeveloped piece of land barely the
length of a football field. But not for long.
Gilroy
For years, shoppers have been kept from zipping between Gilroy’s two major shopping meccas – 10th Street’s big-box retailers and the Gilroy Premium Outlets off Leavesley Road – by an undeveloped piece of land barely the length of a football field. But not for long.
Just in time for the crush of shoppers that descend upon Gilroy every holiday season, the city will unveil the newly erected Camino Arroyo Bridge. The $11.4 million bridge, set to open Nov. 22 and partially funded by a $6.7 million grant from the Valley Transportation Authority, will stretch over Llagas Creek, connecting the outlets with other value-oriented stores like Wal-Mart, Costco and Target and keeping shoppers in Gilroy.
The outlets accounted for $2.4 million in sales tax for the 2007/2008 fiscal year, or 20 percent of the city’s total sales tax revenue. The 10th Street development, including Wal-Mart, Costco and Lowe’s, accounted for another $2.1 million, or 18 percent, according to city documents. City Administrator Tom Haglund said the city did not identify a specific dollar amount in terms of the money that will be generated by the flow of traffic between the two shopping centers but “whenever you can make it very convenient for drivers, they tend to stay out there and conduct all their business at one time.”
Outlet shoppers traveling south on Camino Arroyo know Costco is farther away than it appears. Under the current road layout, they must cross U.S. 101 using the Sixth Street overpass and travel along city streets to 10th Street, or jump on 101 and head south for one exit.
But no longer will a congested freeway or half a dozen traffic lights on 10th and Leavesley get in the way of shopping.
“The new bridge will connect a lot of the action going on east of the freeway and should help people get around,” said Don Dey, city transportation engineer.
The bridge is expected to relieve about 10 percent of freeway traffic between the Leavesley Road and 10th Street exits, Dey said. It will also give residents living in the neighborhood near Sixth and Chestnut streets a “back door” into the 10th Street shopping centers, he said.
The link will make shopping easier for the local customers and allow out-of-towners to navigate the area without having to battle freeway traffic, said Larry Cope, Gilroy Economic Development Corporation CEO.
Cope said that with falling sales tax revenues and the national state of economic turmoil, anything that helps shoppers get to the stores is a plus.
“Shopping overall will be down nationally this holiday season and I don’t think we’re immune to that here in Gilroy,” Cope said. “But people are looking to shop for value and we have that in Gilroy. If traffic’s more manageable and drivers aren’t waiting in these long queues to get off the interstate, it will encourage people to shop when they might have thought it was too much before.”
The city is currently conducting a wayfinding study to consider key points where signs will help traffic circulation and will be presented to the council in December.
Final completion of the project, including bike lanes, sidewalks and a widening of Camino Arroyo north of Sixth Street, is expected by Spring 2009.
Although the general manager of the Gilroy Premium Outlets declined to comment on the effect of the bridge on traffic to the outlets, Jane Howard, executive director of the Gilroy Visitor’s Bureau, said the outlets will benefit greatly from the establishment of a continuous thoroughfare between the two shopping centers.
Since the city doesn’t have money to throw into a big awareness campaign, they’re getting the word out by advertising the new bridge on the chamber of commerce, visitor’s bureau and their own Web sites.
The new bridge will be unveiled Saturday at a ribbon cutting ceremony, 10 a.m. Saturday, at the intersection of Camino Arroyo and Sixth Street, after which the bridge will be open to traffic.
Mayor Al Pinheiro, who will speak at the ribbon cutting, said the bridge is part of a two-pronged approach to get people moving around Gilroy and spending money.
“We can’t influence how many people show up, but we can at least make it easier for them to get around while they’re here,” Pinheiro said.
