Hilltop Mall
Twenty years ago, the Hilltop Mall was the place to be in Richmond. It was a bustling shopping area full of life, and around this time of the year, it would have been extra busy with holiday shoppers. Today, the mall is vacant and isolated, stores are empty and dark, with only Walmart open. But Hilltop’s owner says the site has a promising future providing three things Richmond needs: employment opportunities, retail space and mixed-use housing. Prologis, an industrial real…
Richmond City Council on Tuesday bowed to pressure from residents in the Hilltop area, selecting the Civic Center instead of the larger mall lot for a safe parking pilot program.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Richmond City Council is expected to revisit a plan it favored earlier this month to establish a pilot safe parking program at Hilltop Mall for people without housing.
How Cesar Zepeda, the President of the Hilltop District Neighborhood Council, is putting Hilltop back on the map.
As malls across the country shutter their doors, developers in Richmond are doubling down on the Hilltop Mall. LBG, Hilltop’s new owner, is focusing on transitioning Hilltop from a shopping location to an entertainment destination.
When Cesar Zepeda, president of Hilltop’s Neighborhood Council, met with investors and developers prior to LBG’s purchase, he emphasized the Hilltop community’s vision: a mixed-use development that incorporates affordable housing units. But while housing is needed all over the Bay Area, Zepeda said the new owners and the community need to be “realistic and understand what the Hilltop area is able to give.”
It’s not 9,600 housing units, he said.