A desire to bring an elegant, affordable banquet hall to the west side of Turlock inspired Raja Singh to begin plans for Mirage Banquet Hall – a 43,515 square foot event center that will go before the Planning Commission in April.
“I don’t think there’s anything in the area remotely close to what we’re trying to build,” said Singh. “We are very excited to bring two brand new buildings to the city. We are building this for everybody.”
The Mirage Banquet Hall, planned to be built at 2300 and 2318 W. Main Street, will have two event halls, one at 9,600 square feet and another at 11,960 square feet respectively, outdoor event space complete with landscaping, a full-service catering kitchen, offices and retail space. During scheduled events, the hall will be able to accommodate between 500 and 1,000 guests. Singh hopes to host all types of events at the space, from weddings and receptions to birthday parties and proms, as well as all types of patrons.
“We will be able to serve Hispanic food, Italian food, American food, Indian food…we’re bringing something to the table that no other venue can offer,” he said. “We are going through so many ideas to make sure that it is usable for every culture, every community.”
Singh hopes that Mirage Banquet Hall will not only serve the Turlock area, but other cities as well, from Los Banos to Lathrop.
“A lot of people are travelling far away and having a hard time accommodating the number of people that they want, so we’re trying to build a really nice, fancy building in Turlock so we can target surrounding cities too,” said Singh.
Singh owns and operates two other banquet halls by the same name in Sacramento and Vancouver, British Columbia. He chose Turlock as the location for his third banquet hall based on its proximity to Highway 99, and found the lot across the street from the movie theater to be a perfect spot since there are no nearby residential areas.
“Other halls in town have issues with noise and hours, and their neighbors are annoyed,” said Singh. “We chose this location because it’s not going to bother anybody.”
Mirage Banquet Hall will operate seven days a week with most events occurring Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. In addition to the two event hall buildings, approximately 526 parking spaces are proposed to support the space. In the future, Singh also hopes to construct a 7,000 square foot restaurant on the property, but a specific tenant or type of restaurant has not been decided upon yet.
“Our main goal right now is to build the banquet hall,” said Singh. “It will create jobs and more tax revenue for the city, and we hope it will be the most affordable hall in the area.”
