Rebuffing economic trends, the Issaquah Highlands has managed to attract a major retail developer and keep it.

The city celebrated a groundbreaking ceremony for the Grand Ridge Plaza, 25 acres of shopping, restaurants and entertainment Tuesday.

It’s the final major feature left to be built in the planned community.

“It will be the heart and soul of what we know as the Issaquah Highlands,” said Rene Ancinas, CEO of Port Blakely, the Highlands master developer.

Regency Centers, the national developer big and brave enough to take on the project, plans to open the 12-screen Regal theater and a core of sit-down restaurants by summer 2013. A Safeway grocery store would follow that November.

The plan calls for about 225,0000 square feet of retail space and includes a gas station, clothing stores and boutiques.

It’s not Port Blakely’s first attempt to build out the development. In 2006, it was so sure of its High Streets lifestyle shopping center, something akin to UVillage in Seattle, that it laid new roads and installed utilities.

The plan collapsed with the economy and Port Blakely has been courting retail developers since. Lifestyle centers have proven unsuccessful, and so the plan has changed.

“There have been many visions,” Ancinas said. “It’s always evolved over time.”

Grand Ridge Plaza still will have gathering places and walkability. However, it also will have more parking than some originally envisioned.

There has to be a balance between what retailers need and what cities want, and this plan does that, said Craig Ramey senior vice president at Regency.

Regency is known for building grocery-store anchored shopping centers and owns more than 200 of them throughout the United States.

The plan still calls for some street retail, but still gives easy parking access, Ramey said. “We want (residents) to walk down from their houses and go shopping.”

Issaquah first began seeking a vision for the Highlands in 1989 as a smart growth concept for suburban community, said Mayor Ava Frisinger. “That vision will soon become more a reality.”