|
The 20,000 people who already live Downtown are about to get some company. A building boom is under way, and dozens of projects — big and small — are adding to residential choices in the Centre City. "We have 2,500 units in the pipeline and more on the horizon," says Peter Hall, president and chief operating officer of the Centre City Development Corp.
This $610 million residential boom will bring homes ranging from high-ceilinged lofts in recycled buildings to ultra-wired units in stylish high-rises. Hall says the wave of construction is producing an unprecedented variety of housing options in different price ranges, although exactly what that means is tough to define. Most of the developers are holding off on pricing until the projects are ready to open. Fueling the new development is the popularity of Downtown housing. The vacancy rate for rentals has hovered near zero for the past two years, and a thousand more apartments soon will hit the market.
Meanwhile, buyers are snapping up condos. The not-yet-completed 235 on Market complex sold 75 percent of its 57 condominiums in the first three months of sales, its developer Intracorp. reports. Hall says several factors influence people to move Downtown, among them an aversion to traffic jams, soaring suburban housing costs and the growing attractiveness of the Centre City. "A lot of crosscurrents have gotten into alignment," he says.
The following is a neighborhood-by-neighborhood breakdown of projects recently completed, under construction or in the pipeline.
The scaffolding around the historic El Cortez heralded the rebirth of this hilltop landmark and the surrounding neighborhood. After standing for years as a crumbling, vacant monument to the past, the 1920s-era hotel finally is getting a new life. Janopaul Block LLC is in the midst of a $23 million National Register-quality rehabilitation of the 119,000-square-foot building, which will have 85 apartments, special event space and 104 parking spaces. Completion is scheduled for May.
Around the hotel, other developments are springing up. BOSA Development Corp. is building 210 condominiums on the north side of Beech Street between Eighth and Ninth avenues. The project includes a 22-story tower along Beech Street and mid-rise towers and townhouses along Eighth and Ninth avenues.
Forest City Residential West Inc. is building the Heritage Apartments in four-story structures along the two blocks north and east of the El Cortez Hotel. Of the 230 apartments, 38 are restricted to affordable rental rates.
Smaller complexes are being built as well. Moe Siry is developing Second Avenue Studios, 20 apartments at 1525 Second Ave. Work is to begin in June, with completion by the end of 2000. Developer J.S. Properties plans to start work in September on the Lofts on Fourth, a 49-unit condominium project with 3,500 square feet of retail space. It should be finished December 2001. Also due to be finished around the same time is Lofts on Fifth, 24 apartments with street-level retail at 1446 Fifth Ave. Soleil Court, an eight-home complex designed by architect James Kelley-Markham, is being constructed on the east side of Ninth Avenue between Beech and Cedar streets.
Gaslamp Quarter Historic District
The hip Gaslamp Quarter will be home to a growing number of urban life lovers as its housing stock increases. Busy Downtown developer Intracorp San Diego LLC has proposed a 54-condominium project above retail stores at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and E Street.
The renovation of two Gaslamp landmarks includes housing. Developer Foster Kivel is just about finished with a $2.5 million rehabilitation of the William Penn Hotel at Fifth Avenue and F Street that will transform former hotel rooms into 18 apartment lofts. The historic Woolworth Building on Fifth Avenue between Broadway and E Street will have eight live-work apartment lofts. The $850,000 renovation is due for completion in April.
 The Marina District — the cradle of residential redevelopment in the Centre City — continues its impressive growth. Development in the district got its second wind when, in 1998, CCDC requested another round of housing proposals and received more than 30. So far the San Diego City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency, has selected nine proposals that would generate another 1,150 units.
Going up on the block bounded by Market and Front streets are the twin towers of the Horizons project, which includes 211 condominiums and 11,200 square feet of commercial space. Construction, which began last July, should be done in July 2001. It is not the only twin-tower complex going up in the neighborhood. On the drawing board is the Renaissance, a twin-tower development with 240 condominiums and townhouses, retail space and 330 parking spaces. Reliance Development Group plans to build the project on the block bounded by First Avenue and Front, Market and G streets. Excavation is to start next month. Project completion is targeted for March 2002.
Also under construction is Marina Place, with 151 apartments, 11,000 square feet of commercial space and 186 parking spaces. The complex, on the block bounded by First, Second and Island avenues and Market Street, will be finished in June 2001.
Another big project due to start in July is Park Place, a 30-story, 178-condominium building on the northwest corner of Harbor Drive and Kettner Boulevard.
Work is about to begin on City Walk, the Olson Co.'s proposal for 109 townhomes, flats and lofts on the block bounded by State, G, Union and Market streets. The project will be finished in July 2001.
An even larger project on the drawing board proposes a 28-story development, with a KUSI studio in the 130,000 square feet of space reserved for the television station and offices. The building, on the block bounded by First, Second, Island avenues and J Street, will have 192 apartments. Construction is to begin in the fall, with completion in 2002.
Intracorp San Diego is building three of the new Marina developments. Under construction is 235 on Market, with 57 condominiums and 86 parking spaces. It is on the south side of Market street between Second and Third avenues. The project should be finished in January 2001. A second Intracorp project, Crown Bay, is due to start construction next month. It will add 86 condos and street-level retail space on the north side of K Street between Third and Fourth avenues. A third project, the Fourth and J mixed use, will have 53 condominiums above retail space. Once approved, work on the project could begin in July and be finished in January 2002.
The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association completed its 45-apartment senior housing project last year. The Sun Country building project is in the Asian/Pacific Historic Thematic District on Third Avenue between J Street and Island Avenue.
 The 350-acre East Village neighborhood, site of the future San Diego Padres ballpark, already is showing signs of residential revival. The most eagerly awaited project is 900 F Street, the project that will eliminate the abandoned construction site known as Jackson's Hole, where an ugly forest of rusted beams had protruded from an unfinished excavation site for years. Developer ManSerMar of Atlanta is replacing the eyesore with a mixed-use project, including 115 apartments and about 1,300 square feet of commercial space. Completion is scheduled for February 2001.
The ubiquitous Downtown architect/developer Jonathan Segal last year improved on his urban pioneer credentials, this time in the East Village area. He completed Angove Apartments, 11 lofts with 18-foot ceilings, roof decks and fireplaces on the southwest corner of Tenth and Island avenues. He also finished the similarly designed Moto Villas Apartments, 36 live-work lofts on the north side of G Street between Ninth and Tenth avenues.
Three individual row homes, designed by architect Kevin deFreitas, were finished last year on the south side of F Street between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, and DeFreitas has designed another project with 17 row homes across the street. Under construction, the row homes are due for completion in the spring of 2001.
Bigger projects are in the planning stages. CCDC, for instance, is working with property owners in the 12th Avenue and Market Street vicinity for some major mixed-use and residential housing projects.
Doug Wilson is proposing the Park Lofts, a 156-condominium complex on the south side of Island Avenue between Eighth and Ninth avenues. Work could begin in July. Intracorp San Diego LLC plans the Eleventh and G project, with 60 condominiums above 8,000 square feet of street-level retail. The same developer has proposed Diamond Terrace, 81 condominiums above 10,000 square feet of street-level commercial space on the northeast corner of Ninth Avenue and J Street.
There are several smaller proposals. Owner/developer Amos Schechtman has a proposal in the works for Les Lofts, a five-story project with 15 apartments, built over street-level commercial space, at 744 Seventh Ave. Work may begin in July. Greg Paquette, another owner and developer, plans to build Paquette Tower, five condominiums over retail space at 459 Sixth Ave.
Stylish new condos rise on the gentle hillsides of an ethnic neighborhood blessed with Old World charm and views of San Diego Bay. On the northern edge of Downtown, almost in the shadow of its high-rises, Little Italy seems like a village, cozily arranged around the shops and restaurants of India Street, its commercial heart. The new developments respect its scale.
Among the many projects bringing new residents to Little Italy is Porto Siena, which will be built at the intersection of India and Cedar streets. The upscale $24 million complex, approved by CCDC in December, will add 88 condominiums on the northeast corner. Construction of the Intracorp San Diego development is scheduled to begin in April, with completion by the fall of 2001. Meanwhile, CCDC requested residential proposals for a 5,000 square foot agency-owned site on the northwest corner of India and Cedar.
The Columbia/Elm Lofts, a 21-unit, six-story apartment project on the northeast corner of Columbia and Elm streets, is under construction and due to be finished in August.
 Construction also is under way on architect Jonathan Segal's Waterfront development. Centered around the old Waterfront Bar, the project is creating 42 loft apartments at the southwest corner of Kettner Boulevard and Hawthorn Street. Completion is scheduled for June. Two other Segal developments also are in the works. The Son of Kettner project will produce 31 apartments on the northeast corner of Cedar Street and Kettner Boulevard. It will be finished in October. The State, three single-family attached homes at the southwest corner of State and Cedar streets, will be ready in June.
Meanwhile, the Olson Co. is building Village Walk, a 72-unit condominium project at the northeast corner of India and Beech streets. When finished in March 2001, it will feature townhomes, shopkeeper units, flats and lofts around a common courtyard.
Setting the tone for Little Italy's residential growth was the Lind Residential Project, a multi-developer effort CCDC initiated on the block bounded by Kettner, India, Beech and Cedar. In 1998, the first phase of the project — 16 Segal-built row homes — was finished. Later, the 12-unit Beech Street loft project by Ted Smith and others was built. The final phase, Lind A-2, proposes an additional six homes and some retail space.
Core
Even the Downtown core, dominated by high-rise office buildings, is adding to the residential housing stock. Last year Bud Fischer and Howard Greenberg finished rehabilitating a three-story building on C Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues. Their Four C Square project improved a food court and retail area and added 29 lofts.
The proposed "On Broadway" mixed-use project, which will renovate and reuse the Walker-Scott and Owl Drug buildings, is expected to include some residential units. Construction could start this summer.
Trudy Stambook, a Downtown real estate professional involved in more than 300 Centre City sales, says residential demand has gone through the roof since 1997. "It’s wonderful to see," she says. "The sales prices are exceeding the previous high mark. I actually have waiting lists of prospective purchasers for select properties."
|
