Crews have started work on Phase Three of Buchanan Crossroads, the large retail shopping complex in northeast Clovis that already encompasses two of the four corners of the increasingly busy Herndon and Fowler avenues’ intersection. Pre-construction earthwork started at the 10.5-acre development site earlier this month. Mike Thomason of Fresno-based Thomason Development Group is doing the project.

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Thomason Development also built the adjacent Phase One and Phase Two portions of Buchanan Crossroads. Phase One, which opened in 2000, is anchored by Vons while Phase Two, completed in 2008, had been anchored by Fresh & Easy until that company closed its California operations last year.

Phase Three will be located directly east across Fowler from Vons. A Chase bank branch on the corner of Herndon and Fowler is currently the only building on the parcel.

According to plans filed with the city, the project will be built out in multiple phases, with planners having already approved two large commercial retail buildings encompassing 9,998 square feet and 9,100 square feet respectively.

The first two buildings will be situated “just east of the bank,” according to Orlando Ramirez, an associate planner with the City of Clovis.

Conceptual renderings of the overall project submitted to the Clovis Planning Department show a total of eight separate buildings situated around the parcel’s perimeter as well as a new yet-to-be-named local street connecting Fowler south of Herndon to planned residential neighborhoods to be located south and east of the new Phase Three development.

“These two buildings are part of a larger development plan,” Ramirez confirmed. “But at this point, the applicant has only received final approvals for the first two buildings.”

Mike Thomason said this week that Phase Three plans call for another 80,000 square feet of commercial-retail space, with the timing of the build out, he added, “dependent on market conditions.”

Thomason said Chipotle, Five Guys, Blaze Pizza and Jersey Mike’s have all signed leases for space in the two new buildings, which will be ready for occupancy by November.

“We’ve got a couple more restaurants close to signing but I can’t name any names just yet,” Thomason said.

While the former Fresh & Easy store remains unoccupied, vacancies are minimal in Buchanan Crossroads Phase One and Phase Two as well as at the Windmill Shopping Center located on the northeast corner of the Herndon-Fowler intersection. SaveMart and a GB3 gym are among that shopping center’s anchor tenants.

“There continues to be a shortage of restaurants and services in northeast Clovis,” Thomason said. “With this new [Phase Three] development, we’re trying to create more of a pedestrian-friendly, patio environment.”