Mission not AccoMplished We’re still waiting for Mission Gateway. And waiting. And waiting. B y S t e v e vo c k r o dt
If Tom ValenTI says someThIng, you should lIsTen.
What the New York developer behind Mission Gateway says about the retail project at Roe Avenue and Johnson Drive, in Mission, isn’t really an insight of what will happen at the 26-acre site. It’s a strong indicator of what won’t happen there. Valenti bought the Mission Mall site in 2005 and tore it down, promising to remake it into all kinds of different things that haven’t panned out. Only last summer did dirt start moving at the barren site, which has been covered by weeds for the last eight years. But in mid-December came another announcement of yet another delay. Anyone who has followed this project — even from afar — shouldn’t be surprised. Delays in development projects aren’t unusual. But Valenti has broken more than his share of promises regarding what the site would be and when construction would start. He’s getting $37 million in public money — and possibly more — to build Mission Gateway, so it’s not just a matter of a private businessman who’s slow to get his plans moving. The Pitch looked back into local media archives, dating back to 2005, to reality-check Valenti’s statements of what would happen at the Mission Gateway location. Here’s what we found. continued on page 8
pitch.com
january 16 -22, 2014
the pitch
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