When local restaurants are outperforming their national chain averages by as much as 25 percent, retailers tend to pay attention.
In this Retail Insight interview from ICSC Las Vegas, reporter Nellie Day sits down with Melissa McClain, economic development manager for the City of Moreno Valley, to explore what’s driving one of Southern California’s most compelling — and still underleveraged — retail markets. With 215,000 residents and 2.4 million people within a 20-mile trade radius, the city has quietly built the consumer base retailers look for. Average household incomes have roughly doubled over the past decade to more than $121,000 annually, fueled by more than 34,000 jobs created in the last 12 years and a growing roster of Fortune 500 employers.
Major projects in the pipeline include a new town center, a 40,000-square-foot immersive museum at the Moreno Valley Mall, and the World Logistics Center — a master-planned industrial community projected to bring 20,000 permanent jobs at full build-out. Taken together, they point to momentum that’s far from finished.
Watch the video to hear McClain make the case for why Moreno Valley may be the most underrated retail opportunity left in Southern California — and what the city is doing to make sure developers and retailers can move quickly once they see it.
Retail Insight is a sponsored video series produced by Shopping Center Business, capturing insights from leading retail real estate firms at ICSC Las Vegas 2026. Click here to subscribe.