Companies doing business in Silicon Valley increasingly are conceiving new products, services, enterprises and even an entire shopping center developed specifically to appeal to Hispanics.

Their efforts are part of a tidal wave of commercial change across the country that is playing out more forcefully in California than perhaps anywhere else. According to the state's demographer, Santa Clara County's Hispanic population of roughly 400,000 will double over the next quarter century to make up one-third of the county's total population in 2030.

To appeal to all those shoppers, a new 190,000-square-foot East San Jose center will be built from floor to ceiling with Hispanics in mind. In addition to 15 retailers, the very architecture of the strip mall has been designed to appeal specifically to larger families who don't necessarily arrive by car.

The shopping center includes large public spaces because Hispanic families often shop together, with some heading to stores while others socialize, the architecht says. Sidewalks are wider, and there are numerous well-marked pedestrian paths through the parking lot, including one that connects the center to a nearby bus stop.

It is the first center of its kind that its architect, Stuart Lyle of San Francisco, has conceived. Ultimately, its design is meant to help the center's businesses better tap the ever-growing retail buying power of the Eastside's Hispanic population. Lyle believes the center will prove a "case study" for the industry at large to test that premise.

"We traveled to Queretaro and Guanajuato [Mexico] and took many, many images of buildings there" for inspiration, says Gerry Hunt, president of Blake Hunt Ventures, the center developer. "But the one thing we heard from the neighborhood meetings [in San Jose] is that residents wanted something that respected their heritage but also something that recognized that they were in the U.S. and East San Jose now."

Local grocers are perhaps those most obviously adapting to the region's changing demographics with San Jose-based Mi Pueblo Food Centers growing rapidly. Mexican grocer Grupo Gigante also has shown an interest in locating in Silicon Valley.

But examples abound -- from banking to private equity management to health care to soft goods retailing -- of the ways in which commerce in the Bay Area is seeking to capture the Hispanic dollar. California's Hispanics have more buying power than their counterparts in every other state -- $189 billion in 2003, rising to more than $270 billion by 2008, according to the Selig Center at the University of Georgia.

Not only is the architecture of the East San Jose center unique, its anchor store, Target, also is accepting conditions it typically wouldn't -- fewer parking spaces to make room for the public areas and lots of restaurants, Mr. Lyle says. The national retailer is "really stepping to the plate here" to make the project work, he adds. Mexican retailer Grupo FAMSA also is considering a store in the new East San Jose center, he says.

Meanwhile, Ross Dress for Less, headquartered in Newark, has announced that it will open the first 10 of a new concept store, dd's Discounts, this year. All of the initial stores are to be on the West Coast, although Ross is not yet discussing exactly where.

The chain will target shoppers with household incomes of $30,000 to $35,000, roughly $20,000 less than at Ross stores themselves, says Investor Relations Vice President Katie Loughnot. In addition, the stores will be smaller than the typical Ross, located in more urban, densely-populated settings with predominantly multifamily housing, and often sit in older shopping centers "going through a second and even a third generation of tenants," she says. "Co-tenants" could include Dollar Stores.

While Ms. Loughnot says Ross hasn't identified the potential clientele for the new stores by ethnicity, Matt Holmes, president of Retail West of Palo Alto and San Francisco, a commercial and retail broker with some specialization in the Hispanic market, says it's nearly impossible to imagine that the stores' customers won't be Hispanics and other minorities.

"Their strategy is premised on secondary, urban locations where they expect to pay low rent. That, by its very nature means they will be in much more minority-focused environments," he says. "The concept clearly caters to the Hispanic market."

Still, Ms. Loughnot notes that Ross understands the Hispanic market very well. Sixty percent of its 568 stores are in California, Texas and Florida, three of the most heavily Hispanic states. The company has 10 South Bay Ross stores and 45 Bay Area stores.

Ms. Loughnot declines to say where Ross plans to locate the first dd's Discounts, but Mr. Holmes says the understanding in the retail community is that as many as six will open in the Bay Area before the end of the year.

The region will see more of the same in coming years.

At least two large venture capital funds with $100 million or more each have been created with Hispanics in mind. Northern California is on the radar screens of both fund managers, who are Hispanic themselves. The funds' investors include the California Public Employees Retirement System, the California State Teachers Retirement System, Verizon Communications, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Washington Mutual.

Victor Maruri, one of two managing partners for Hispania Capital Partners of Chicago, says the firm has $110 million and expects to raise $15 million more for a fund that is to invest nationally in firms that cater to Hispanics. California should be the largest recipient of his fund's investments, and he already is negotiating with three California companies -- two food manufacturers and one business services company. One is in Northern California. Hispania also has offices in Sacramento, Los Angeles and Miami.

At the same time, Luis Nogales of Nogales Investors of Los Angeles says he is looking to place at least 50 percent of his fund in California as well. The Nogales fund was created to invest in companies that serve low- and moderate-income communities, he says, but it's been well-understood since its inception that Hispanics will be among its chief beneficiaries.

"Inevitably everyone understood and believed we would get a larger portion of Hispanic-owned businesses coming to us because people want to do business with people who they believe understand them," Mr. Nogales says.

Among the companies he's currently considering for investment is a juice/nectar manufacturer that would be headquartered in the East Bay. "The greatest consumers of these juices are Hispanics and Asians," he says.

Two years ago, the depth of American interest in Hispanics began and ended with "J.Lo and Ricky Martin," Mr. Maruri says. Today, Hispanic buying power has become a focus of mainstream American business.

"I think we are the only fund with our premise active right now, but I know there are a whole bunch of funds coming up behind us," he says.