The continued revitalization of Downtown is providing a welcome frontier for DPR Construction, says Jay Leopold, the company’s San Diego regional manager.

“There’s a lot about Downtown that’s exciting,” says Leopold. He credits the development of Petco Park and a resurgence of residential construction with the new urban building focus. “Personally, I’m fired up about it. Organizationally, we’re pretty excited about some of the opportunities down there for us. It will be a market that we would like to be more active in. I think it’ll also be an important part of our diversification. Ideally, we won’t rely too heavily on any one market niche.”

DPR is the general contractor for Allegro Towers, a complex near Little Italy that will include 240,000 square feet of mixed-use space with 201 apartment/commercial units. Completion is set for 2004.

The project represents a significant addition to DPR’s San Diego portfolio. “Our work has not been focused on Downtown,” Leopold says. “It’s been primarily technical projects for the biotech community, health care work and corporate commercial work.”

Given the volatility of Downtown construction — its ups and downs within spans of a few years to a decade — Leopold didn’t expect to see a resurgence of construction in the area. “I wouldn’t have anticipated this much construction Downtown right now, so this is pretty extraordinary,” he says. “I don’t think there’s ever been this many tower cranes standing in Downtown San Diego at any one time. It’s pretty exciting stuff to see.”

DPR seeks projects that are technically and logistically challenging, Leopold says, and that’s part of the reason Allegro Towers is a good fit for the company. The project sits on an extremely tight site, with construction to the property line, sidewalk-to-sidewalk.

One of the things Leopold is proud of is that local contractors are working on new Downtown projects. Historically, when high-rise work has been in high gear, it seemed a lot of it was done by out-of-town contractors, he notes. “And now when you go Downtown, it’s the local builders who are taking care of business.”

Founded in 1990 in Redwood City, DPR opened its San Diego branch in 1993. The firm has handled contracts from Oceanside to Otay Mesa, east to El Cajon and in Temecula.

— Roman S. Koenig