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San Diego is lucky. Ever since Mayor Pete Wilson declared San Diego "America's Finest City" in 1972, San Diegans have taken a special pride in their city and its neighborhoods. We are all protective of the tremendous resource we share: this bay front city with the unparalleled climate, world renowned beaches and attractions and, more recently, its emergence as one of the world's leading technology centers.
One thing is certain as we enter the new millennium - more growth is coming. Driven by the proliferation of biotech, communications and technology companies, San Diego’s employment base is projected to increase by an average 1.6% per year over the next 20 years, equating to 24,200 jobs annually. When this job growth is coupled with in-migration, our city's population will grow to more than 3.85 million people by the year 2020.
Like many other cities across the country, the growth of the past 50 years has been characterized by suburban sprawl. Today, this sprawl is generating concerns over infrastructure, open space and quality of life. Fortunately, San Diego is taking the lead with other cities throughout the country, embarking on a "Smart Growth" path that for us, in particular, must focus on reinventing our central business district - the "re-urbanization" of our city.
In a world increasingly driven by the ability to accomplish more in shorter and shorter time frames, businesses and their employees are demanding convenience. People want to live closer to their place of work, entertainment, cultural and retail support services. Businesses striving to recruit and keep top talent want to locate in amenity-rich areas where their employees want to be. More importantly is the lifestyle choice that people are making to live in exciting and vibrant 24-hours-a-day urban environments. It seems that this re-urbanization could be representing an alternative to what some see as a homogenous suburban environment.
Between the mid-fifties and seventies, one of San Diego’s most valuable resources was also one of its most overlooked. Despite its spectacular location fronting San Diego Bay, downtown San Diego was under-utilized and blighted, and occupied primarily by military personnel. Aside from county and city government offices and a handful of first generation high rises, downtown San Diego was best known - and avoided - for its abundance of pornographic theaters, run-down bars, and dirty streets. Most of the city's business activity was conducted elsewhere, in areas such as Mission Valley, Kearny Mesa and the like. On the weekends, downtown was deserted as San Diegans spent their recreational hours and dollars in the newer suburban areas that had entertainment and were considered clean, desirable and safe.
In 1972, the vision of Mayor Wilson began to define the Smart Growth model for San Diego. With the creation of Centre City Development Corporation, the City launched a vital Smart Growth initiative through which private developers have been - and continue to be - encouraged to redevelop the city's blighted neighborhoods. This model for redevelopment is predicated upon the private and public sectors working together to make redevelopment happen. Through what truly is a public-private partnership, the City has been able to define the redevelopment plan while appropriately allowing the private sector to implement that plan.
In 1980, Seaport Village became downtown’s first major attraction that combined shopping, dining and entertainment on waterfront acreage within walking distance of Centre City. The village's instant popularity with area residents and tourists signaled what was to follow - a public-private partnership between the City and Ernie Hahn to create the $140 million Horton Plaza in 1985.
In 1989, the City established its greatest economic engine with the opening of the San Diego Convention Center and later, the revitalization of the Gaslamp Quarter. Charming galleries, and specialty shops replaced pornographic theaters and deteriorating bars. As the City became more vibrant, Class A office towers were built. Despite the temporary over-supply of the early '90s, these buildings have continued to lease and all now report single-digit vacancy rates.
Today, downtown’s central core stands as a testimonial to what vision and foresight can bring. The good news is that San Diego’s urban renaissance has only just begun. Currently 100 redevelopment or public improvement projects are under way or planned in downtown - projects that represent the careful planning by and cooperation between city, public agencies, and private developers. These developments, which encompass eight downtown "neighborhoods" have been long in planning and will help transform our downtown into the first truly great city of the 21st century.
The largest of these neighborhoods, East Village, has for years stood as a painful reminder of what our downtown central core used to be. Set in the eastern-most quadrant of downtown, East Village is one of the city's most under-utilized assets? but not for long. For the first time in this country's history, a major city has conditioned its investment in a professional sports facility upon a commitment from the team's owner to redevelop the surrounding neighborhood, in this case East Village.
By taking San Diego’s Smart Growth approach to an even higher level, the development of an urban sports ballpark for the San Diego Padres will also result in the immediate transformation of a blighted area into a 24-hour live, work and play community. Thus, the private development effort will not only provide the catalyst for redevelopment, but it will pay for the City's investment through the generation of increased property and hotel occupancy taxes. This new model for redevelopment (Smart Growth) is being carefully watched by other cities that hope to take advantage of this novel approach.
The ballpark and its adjoining park-at-the-park will provide the ultimate in all- American entertainment with home baseball games 81 days per year and a perfect venue for outdoor concerts, picnics and other family-oriented activities the remaining 284 days. But what of the 26 blocks surrounding the ballpark?
Burnham Development Group has assembled a team of the nation's most creative and experienced developers and architects who bring specialized expertise in hotels, residential, office, R&D, and retail development. Much of this talent is based in San Diego with firms like Carrier Johnson Architects who, like Burnham, have participated in our city's rich history and share an exciting vision for its future. This team has planned, designed, analyzed, and re-designed and re-analyzed every component of this pioneering effort - an effort that will make this East Village neighborhood everything it can be and so much more.
Ultimately, this vital redevelopment district will encompass hotels carefully selected to cater to all guest markets; San Diego’s tallest office high rise, and - new for downtown - a multi-building technology campus featuring the very latest in state-of-the-art communications capabilities. Each of these undertakings represents round-the-clock efforts by the development team to ensure that the district is a place that San Diegans will be proud of and a place that other cities will look upon with envy.
Here is a preview:
Westin Park Hotel: This 500-room four-star hotel will be built on L Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues and will be connected to the ballpark by pedestrian bridges. Towering 33 stories, the Westin Park Hotel will include ample meeting and banquet space, an outdoor pool and terrace, and 38 luxury condominiums on the top 11 floors of the main hotel tower, all with breathtaking views.
AmeriSuites Hotel: The 203-room value-oriented all-suites hotel will be the gateway to the Ballpark District along the J Street corridor. Accordingly, a brick and smooth plaster facade will be reminiscent of the late 19th and early 20th century architectural flavor of this district. A striking green copper dome atop the entry tower at the J and Sixth intersection will serve as a beacon, letting passersby know they have arrived at the Ballpark District.
One Park Boulevard: This 36-story, 700,000-square-foot Class A office tower will be the City's tallest high rise and the closest office building to the waterfront. The tower will feature a sophisticated multi-plain glass curtain wall exterior accented with aluminum and granite. Inside, there will be a spectacular 40-foot tall Sky Garden atrium and access to multiple fiber optics carriers on each floor. This building will have more parking than any other downtown office building - 2 spaces per 1,000 square feet on-site, and an additional 800 surface spaces across the street.
Campus @ the Park: Located at 12th Avenue, Imperial and Park Boulevard, Campus @ the Park will be a first for downtown San Diego - a mid-rise, urban "technology campus" with large floor plates and high-speed voice/data/video telecommunications capabilities designed to attract high-tech businesses downtown. Park Place will have two levels of subterranean parking for 1,000 cars and 600 surface spaces on adjacent sites.
J Street Corridor: Located in the heart of the Ballpark District this vital corridor will be an eclectic mix of older and historic buildings and newer buildings that establish a lively, people-oriented street scene: active storefronts, outdoor dining and colorful umbrellas and trees. A comprehensive agreement between the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Save Our Heritage Organization (SOHO), the Padres, Burnham Development Group and the City saves all but one of the 13 designated historic resources within the area.
Residential: The Ballpark District has stimulated interest in residential development north and east of the ballpark and in surrounding neighborhoods. Infrastructure improvements and amenities are creating commercial and residential development activity in the East Village that will produce the "new type of neighborhood" with 365-day-a-year vitality.
The overall urban plan for the Ballpark District includes implementing the Bay-to-Balboa Park link that visionary planners have been urging for nearly a century, extending Park Boulevard and creating a diagonal from K Street and 12th Avenue that would provide direct access and a striking view corridor to the waterfront.
Planned carefully, downtown San Diego’s growth and urban renewal will change the city's image and position on an increasingly smaller world stage. With a convention center ranked third-best internationally and soon to expand, the proposed ballpark, and a variety of carefully integrated residential, commercial and retail development, our downtown is evidencing Smart Growth at its best.
Burnham Development Group is a specialized division of Burnham Real Estate Services that currently is responsible for more than 3 million square feet of new development throughout California
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