A rendering of a proposed commercial mixed-use project for Visalia that will include a medical specialty care center, motorist services, a hotel, and a visitor center.

The Tulare County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a development agreement to build a major shopping, dining, hotel, office and medical complex on the edge of southwest Visalia.

The Sequoia Gateway Commerce Center will be built on nearly 127 acres currently occupied by farmland southeast of Caldwell Avenue and Highway 99 and include the 60,000-square-foot Valley Children’s Medical Group Specialty Care Center.

That facility would replace the smaller, hospital-run Akers Specialty Care Center in Visalia.

The Sequoia Gateway project also would include two gas stations and convenience stores, eight fast food and sit-down restaurants, three office buildings, 725,000 square feet of retail space, three hotels and a visitor’s center, according to a county report.

A water treatment plant and a storm water drainage basin also would be built on the site.

The center is being developed by Sequoia Gateway LLC, a partnership between Fred Ruiz, co-founder and chairman emeritus Dinuba-based Ruiz Foods, and Bill Travis, who owns the land being developed.

Plans are to build Sequoia Gateway in phases — with the children’s medical facility in the first phase — over eight to 10 years, according to a press release from the developers.