Menifee in Pictures: Beginnings of the Menifee Town Center

The Menifee Town Center project has been on the drawing board for more than two years, but this is the first sign of actual construction at the vacant lot on the southwest corner of Newport and Haun Roads, across from Countryside Marketplace.

According to Carmen Cave, community development director for the City of Menifee, the grading and foundation work being done inside the fences along Newport Road is preliminary construction of Town Center Drive. That road will provide access not only to the new Santa Rosa Academy -- which is being built several hundred yards to the south -- but also to businesses planned for the Town Center.

Originally billed as the city's downtown area, the Town Center was designed to include City Hall, a theater, restaurants, other businesses and condominiums. None of those plans are finalized, but the construction of Town Center Drive as an access road to Santa Rosa Academy allows for the creation of utility hook-ups that will help the developer better market lots that will be for sale or lease as part of the Town Center Specific Plan, approved previously by the city.

"Menifee in Pictures" is a daily feature on Menifee 24/7. Readers are invited to contribute photos for publication. Email your photos as a .jpg file to doug.spoon@gmail.com and we'll select one for publication each day, along with your name as the photographer. Please include your full name on the submission and any explanation about where and when the photo was taken.