Sunset Esplanade

The Sunset Esplanade is an outdoor shopping center located in the southeast part of Hillsboro, in the U.S. state of Oregon. Opened in 1989, the center is along Tualatin Valley Highway at Minter Bridge Road and includes about five anchor tenants and about thirty other tenants in a complex with about 363,000 square feet of space. Neighbors opposed the center when it was proposed, due to concerns over increased traffic and how it would blend with existing residential neighborhoods. After appeals to the Hillsboro City Council and state land use board, the $23 million project received approval almost two years after first proposed.

Real Property Resources, Inc. announced plans in January 1986 to investigate building a shopping center on 100 acres at what was then Southeast 21st Avenue and Tualatin Valley Highway. At the time, the land was farmland, and of those 100 acres, 32 were zoned for commercial development, with the remainder zoned for residential use. The developers at that point proposed at most a 300,000 square feet center, and were unsure if they would develop the residential portion of the land. Real Property Resources did not yet own the land, and were unsure what type of residential development they would build if they decided to develop the acres zoned as residential. By May of that year, the developer had proposed re-zoning the residential portion of the land to high-density to allow for the development of apartments on the eastern portion of the land.

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