Fashion Fair Mall Expansion

City of Fresno

Location

2006

Construction Date

74,100 sq. ft

Project Size

Project Overview

Having recently been acquired by the publicly traded retail property development company, Macerich, the expansion of Fashion Fair Mall was the most significant construction project to occur on the property since its creation in 1970. The expansion added two retail strips to the north from the central entry way of the original mall. It included 74,100 square feet of new retail space and added a generous patio and entry path to the original mall entry doors along with 17,700 square feet of restaurant space for Flemings and Cheesecake Factory.

Working with the Macerich Company on numerous projects, Yamabe & Horn was brought in to handle the grading design, utility relocation and parking lot topography.

Project Team:

Philip Romero, PE

Project Details

Given the magnitude of this expansion, it created a number of engineering challenges that Yamabe & Horn solved to help keep the construction time to a minimum. The first was re-routing the water main for the entire facility as it was located in a service alley that was going to be covered by retail space. Working with F+A Architects, Yamabe & Horn was able to find a new location for the water main to be moved to that was as cost-effective as possible, while also making it easily accessible by maintenance personnel in the future.

The next task was to design the grading plan for the parking lot. The expansion absorbed part of the existing parking lot and also created a new drive aisle between it and two new restaurants due north of it. A traffic circle was installed in the middle and required significant drainage design so that heavy rains wouldn’t funnel water directly down the new patio areas and walkways and into the mall.

Yamabe & Horn survey crews completed a site topography of the existing parking lot and the team was able to design the new grading plan that factored in all considerations. The final parking lot and drive aisle construction have proven to be quite effective at draining all water flow over the past 7 years without any issue.