Moooove over Rancho Santa Fe. The 1997 Designer Showcase takes place this August in the old Carnation Dairy Factory in Centre City East.

     The American Society of Interior Designers will unveil eight transformed live/work lofts in Wayne Buss' ReinCarnation Project, an ambitious 50,000-square-foot renovation in the heart of Centre City East's Warehouse District.

    The ASID's selection of a commercial building recently used for military bombing exercises speaks volumes about the progress made toward the revitalization of the neighborhood.

    Neighborhood?

    "Most people don’t realize that everything east of the Gaslamp Quarter is zoned with a residential emphasis," says Buss, an architect/developer and 15-year resident of Centre City East. "I call the area the 'East Village' because it sounds more like a residential neighborhood than the name Centre City East."

    For planning purposes, Buss explains, the area is broken down into four distinct neighborhoods: the Arts District, Warehouse District, College District and Bayside.

    He lives in the Arts District, in one of four residential lofts he converted from his father's former automotive garage on Tenth Avenue and renamed Jacaranda Studios. The three remaining lofts recently sold for $220,000 each.

    And Buss is expecting more neighbors.

    Across the street at 900 F St., 114 townhomes, flats and live/work lofts are planned. To the east, at the corner of 11th Avenue and F Street, the seedy Yale Hotel is being renovated into 15 modern rental units.

    Bud Fischer, a Gaslamp Quarter pioneer, is now working his magic in Centre City East. Fischer brought 75 new lofts to the area in recent years, with the Simon Levi and Julian buildings in the Warehouse District and Church and Library lofts in the Arts District.

    Howard Greenberg of Trilogy Real Estate Management, Fischer's property management company, says renters are eager for Centre City East housing. "People are very interested in the Arts District and the Warehouse District. There's a limited supply of historic loft properties and a huge demand," adds Greenberg.

    With monthly rents ranging from $600 to $1,500, lofts in Centre City East attract a diverse population, from college students to professionals.

    Renters aren’t the only folks the Centre City Development Corp. envisions in Centre City East.

    To attract homeowners, the agency submitted an application last year to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for 300 single-family row homes. The proposed "Homeownership Zone" is designed to create a critical mass of housing in the Warehouse District, south of Market. Although the application was not selected by HUD, CCDC does not rule out the possibility of a smaller-scale home-ownership project in the future.

    Becoming Business Friendly

    Under current zoning, all new construction in Centre City East must be 80 to 100 percent residential. A single-story commercial structure like the Ralphs Grocery store in the Marina District could not be built without a variance permit.

    That may be shortsighted, say Centre City East Association members, a mixture of property owners, business operators and residents.

    "I spoke to a man who owns a 5,000-square-foot parcel next to the San Diego Transit bus yard," says Leslie Wade, the association's executive director. "Someone wanted to buy his property and build a cabinet shop. Under the current residential zoning there's no way, so the buyers are now looking for property outside Downtown."

    A more business-friendly interpretation of the existing zoning, she says, would provide job opportunities for area residents and much-needed economic development in the south eastern area of Centre City East where it is more difficult to site housing be-cause of nearby social services.

    Wade also notes that businesses in Centre City East can take advantage of the area's federal Enterprise Zone status, which offers employment tax credits and expedited permit processing.

    OliverMcMillan executive vice president Paul Buss (no relation to Wayne Buss), agrees that more businesses would like to be part of the mix east of the Gaslamp Quarter.

    "I know companies that would like to bring their local offices to Centre City East but are having a difficult time finding existing space that suits their needs," says Buss. "It makes a great deal of sense to listen to the market and provide some allowance for new construction of commercial and light indus-trial buildings there."

    Buss, who is advancing a proposed mixed-use retail/entertainment complex between Sixth and Seventh avenues in the Arts District, sees a bright future for the area."

    "Centre City East won’t be like the Marina District," says Buss. "Rather than condominiums, it will have smaller-scale projects with a mix of uses."

    He feels strongly that the area needs a critical mass of market-rate housing as proposed as the Home-ownership Zone.

Centre City East Fights Back Area leaders promote housing, reject being Downtown’s social service agency dumping ground "Just Say No" might have been the founding motto of the Centre City East Association (CCEA), which celebrates its fifth anniversary this month.     In 1992, Centre City East was fast becoming an unattractive place to live, work or invest. On the advice of San Diego City Councilman Harry Mathis (then a local legislative consultant), eight people banded together to reverse the area's decline.     They created the Centre City East Association, a non-profit organization of property owners, businesses and residents of Downtown’s east side, to promote redevelopment and to say "no" to social service agency expansion in Centre City East.     "The negative trend in real estate values was totally attributable to the city's effort to take all social service agencies out of the Gaslamp and Horton Plaza areas and concentrate them in Centre City East," says Stan Foster, outgoing chairman of the Centre City East Association. "This created the necessity to work with the redevelopment agency and city council to achieve a more equitable distribution of social service uses throughout the city and the region."     CCEA's establishment was timely. In May of 1992, the Centre City Development Corp., the city's redevelopment arm for Downtown, expanded its boundaries to include Little Italy, Cortez Hill and Centre City East.     The future of Centre City East is as a reservoir of affordable and off-beat market-rate housing for Downtown’s arts and working-class communities. Efforts to design, fund and build affordable homes are now underway.     But before the area could build a better future, it had to turn around decades of government neglect. Along those lines, CCEA was the first organization in the redevelopment expansion area to lobby for neighborhood improvements. It created a list of nuisance properties and forwarded it to CCDC for action. Now, five years later, the effort is starting to bear fruit.     CCEA targeted the notorious Jackson Hole at Ninth Avenue and F Street for redevelopment, which is now slated to become an affordable 114-unit housing project. It asked for, and secured, demolition of the vacant and unsightly Commercial Press building at Seventh Avenue and Market Street. It called for the rehabilitation     of the dilapidated, single-room-occupancy Yale Hotel at the corner of 11th Avenue and F Street that should open this month as a 15-unit loft project. Finally, the group requested the installation of more street lights in the area to increase safety.     On the social services front, the association was successful in holding the line on new providers moving into the area until the establishment this winter of the Cold Weather Shelter in the Wonder Bread building.     Leslie Wade, CCEA's executive director, describes the large-scale shelter as a well-intentioned mistake that need not be repeated next year.     "We know that more than 60 percent of the people who used the shelter came from elsewhere in the region," Wade says. "Many of those people are refusing to enter rehabilitation programs. On the day the shelter closed, two young people pulled up in a car with out-of-state license plates and asked, 'Are you open tonight?' More than anything, the shelter was a giant magnet."     Wade says the association credits CCDC's board for taking a bold stand with area social service providers. The agency recently sent letters to local agencies demanding they comply with their Conditional Use Permits and end loitering. CCDC's chairman, Peter Q. Davis, also has publicly criticized free meal programs that perpetuate homelessness.     Bob McElroy of the Alpha Project, which runs the Neil Good Day Center and managed the city's cold weather shelter, is a vocal critic as well. "The distribution of services without ac-countability being placed on the recipient is part of the problem and enables people to remain homeless," he says.     CCEA also views demanding ac-countability among the population of social service agencies as a key to the area's ability to attract the new residents and businesses it needs to thrive.     "We’ve got to change public opinion about services for the homeless," says Wade. "The Salvation Army is a much better neighbor than the Rescue Mission or St. Vincent de Paul because its programs are comprehensive and self-contained. They don’t invite hundreds inside for a free meal or a bed and then release them back onto the street a few hours later."     Lessening the impact of existing social service providers is just one of CCE A's long-term goals.     Foster says the group will continue to press for elimination of area nuisances. At the same time, he says, the association will support public and private developments that make Centre City East a better place to live, work and even play baseball - CCEA favors the siting of a new baseball stadium for the San Diego Padres in the Warehouse District.     Although CCEA and the redevelopment agency have been contentious at times, CCDC President Peter Hall says Downtown is better off for the group's advocacy.     "I'd rather have passion than indifference," Hall says. "I don’t believe bureaucrats are keepers of the Holy Grail. With public participation, the product is better in the long run. The Centre City East Association's passion and commitment to community benefits the entire city."