|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Officials with Sunset Development Co. have announced plans for a new outdoor performance space near City Center as part of the latest round of updates and changes to the growing Bishop Ranch neighborhood.
The announcement was made public on Jan. 25 in a statement that also included updates about other large-scale projects aimed at facilitating the development of a mixed-use, walkable downtown area in San Ramon in place of the vast amounts of office space that blossomed in the neighborhood decades ago.
“Bishop Ranch is a place of constant evolution — our job as stewards of this property is to optimize what we own and bring it forward to the next generation,” Sunset President and CEO Alexander Mehran Jr. said in last week’s announcements. “One of our biggest responsibilities is to ensure Bishop Ranch remains relevant and dynamic in the marketplace.”
With numerous housing projects and mixed-use developments in the works, including the 404-unit City Village project that is set to open in March as well as the advancement of plans for The Orchards project poised to replace the former global headquarters of Chevron Inc. amid the company’s downsizing to a smaller Bishop Ranch site, the new outdoor performance space is set to round out the offerings of the evolving neighborhood to include entertainment.
“We’re expanding our already walkable downtown destination, with all of life’s daily necessities, into one central location — it’s not just office, it’s not just retail, it’s not just suburban homes,” Mehran Jr. said. “This is an ecosystem that includes all of these uses in one convenient place for a well-rounded, hassle-free lifestyle.”
In a press conference and tour earlier that day, Mehran Jr. elaborated on the motivation behind developing an outdoor performance venue aimed at providing a family friendly entertainment option — specifically with space for children to play outside.
“People generally don’t move to San Ramon unless they have kids, and having four kids myself, I know that when you have little ones like that, you want to be able to sit down and enjoy a meal and be able to watch your kids roughhousing out in the park or whatever they do,” Mehran Jr. said. “And so you can imagine being able to enjoy a meal with your friends here and your kids are running around having fun and you can see them, which as parents, it’s critical that you can keep track of them but you can’t always get them to sit at that chair at dinner.”
The other component of the plan, Mehran Jr. said, was to address the need for a performance venue in San Ramon and to facilitate additional entertainment options for the community.
“The anchor of it will be a live music venue,” Mehran Jr. said. “Our area really needs the sort of smaller 2,000 – 3,000 person venue where we can have acts come in and perform. People love that type of thing. I think post-pandemic it’s great to be able to have people come enjoy things together and we want to promote that.”
With the project still in its early planning stages, Sunset officials noted that few details of the proposed venue were public at this point, with review and discussions with city officials still necessary as next steps in the planning process. Mehran Jr. said that additional entertainment options and activities were being considered as part of the project, but that city officials would need to weigh in before such plans and additional information could be finalized.
What is known at this point is that the proposed project, set for 2600 Camino Ramon next to City Center Bishop Ranch, is aimed at hosting a range of live performance opportunities and accommodating up to 3,500 guests.
While talking to reporters at last week’s press conference, Mehran Jr. also noted that the Bishop Ranch site already has ample parking to accommodate future amphitheater guests, compared to other parts of the city in which parking for a performance venue would need to be accounted for and built from the ground up.
The next steps before more details are finalized and released will be at the city’s Planning Commission and council level, with a construction and opening timeline still pending those conversations and approval from the city.
