Craig Ruiz, principal community development specialist with the city of Chula Vista, says the city council is focused on redeveloping the downtown area and hope to adopt a plan by summer. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

Economic growth in the medium-sized San Diego County cities is often overshadowed by the 800-pound gorilla that is the city of San Diego. But they’re thriving nonetheless, and looking at an optimistic year ahead.

“There’s a good business climate and speculators have started to come in to take advantage of the relatively low commercial space costs,” says Marney Cox, chief economist for the San Diego Association of Governments. “North County and East County are going through a tremendous redevelopment — the first time there’s been growth there in a long time.”

With the notable exceptions of Oceanside, Carlsbad and Chula Vista, much of the growth is coming as revitalization and rethinking of existing commercial areas. Most cities also have bitten down hard on the idea of mixed use that is driving the revitalization of San Diego’s Downtown.

“What’s going on in San Diego is encouraging and promoting redevelopment for most of the growth in the future,” Cox says. “It works better for the community and the environment.”

Good timing is playing a role in the economic growth. Jane McVey, Oceanside’s director of development and redevelopment, points out that few areas have the amount of land necessary to begin large business projects. “Oceanside, Carlsbad, and Chula Vista have much of the undeveloped land in the county,” she says. “It’s a fluke of time and history.”

This year, work will begin on the Pacific Coast Business Park, a 127.4-acre commercial site in Oceanside. Nearby, the 400-acre Ocean Ranch, already home to 1 million square feet of commercial buildings, will see more construction as companies like HK Plastics Engineering Inc. finish their buildings, McVey reports.

“It’s huge in terms of jobs coming on line this year,” she says. “If you’re not watching, suddenly there’s a building where there wasn’t one last week.”

Like many cities, Oceanside sees new local jobs improving life for its residents. City officials estimate the Pacific Coast Business Park will bring 3,000 to 3,500 jobs, while the 500,000-square-foot Oceanside Gateway project is estimated to bring another 1,000.

“Long commutes destroy the social fabric and people’s quality of life,” McVey says. “We are very excited about the thousands of good jobs we’ll be bringing online this year.”

Next door in Vista, office space is in high demand — especially near the North County Courthouse and the Tri-City Medical Center.

“We’ve got several office buildings coming online this year to try to meet the tremendous interest and demand,” says Kevin Ham, director of economic development for Vista.

But redeveloping downtown will take center stage, with plans headed to the city council for review and approval in mid-2006.

In the South County, National City and Imperial Beach also are working to spruce up their downtowns — both through redevelopment projects and programs to help existing businesses.

Imperial Beach is looking at two mixed-use projects for the area between 7th and 9th at Palm Avenue, with a final decision on the developer expected this month.

Imperial Beach also is launching a façade improvement program where the city will help with the design and work of sprucing up its businesses, splitting up to $30,000 of the costs with owners. Another program in development will help micro-enterpreneurs expand their businesses, including assistance in securing small business loans, says Jerry Selby, redevelopment director.

“Redevelopment has become a critical component to enhance the city’s revenue stream, as well as a way to improve quality of life,” Selby says.

Chula Vista, likewise, is turning its eye toward redeveloping western and downtown Chula Vista. The city has just adopted its general plan, which includes direction for improving the downtown as well as for the undeveloped land in Otay.

“Having a general plan will give developers certainty about what the city wants,” says Craig Ruiz, principal community development specialist. “The council is focused on revitalizing downtown and they hope to adopt a plan by summer.”

Three main areas are the focal point: 3rd Avenue, H Street and Broadway. Negotiations are under way on five projects, most mixed use, with developers who have a track record with such projects in Downtown San Diego, Ruiz says.

One symbol of the growth of western Chula Vista is Gateway Chula Vista, on 3rd Avenue at H Street, new home to the San Diego County Credit Union. Two more buildings are slated for the complex, with the second, dedicated to office use, opening in 2006 and the third expected to break ground this year, for a total of 34,700 square feet of new office space.

Meanwhile, a new mall in Otay Ranch is slated to open in November and three new dealerships, including a Sunroad Toyota and a Chrysler-GM dealership owned by Tony McCune, are set for the Auto Park area.

Perhaps the most exciting economic development in the city since the approval of the Eastlake and Otay Ranch projects more than a decade ago is work on a master plan to develop 500 acres at its bayfront with the San Diego Unified Port District. Work on the environmental impact report begins in 2006. Gaylord Entertainment, the chosen developer, expects to spend $650 million on the effort, fulfilling for Chula Vista a three-decade dream.

“We want to create a world-class bay front with convention level, 1,500-room hotel, restaurants and offices, public parks and, possibly, residences,” Ruiz says.

Like Chula Vista, the city of El Cajon is kickstarting its redevelopment by getting its overall plan in place.

“El Cajon has just signed a contract with CityWorks to write a new urban specific plan to redevelop downtown as five distinct mixed-use districts to get out in front of a newly intensified developer-financier horizon,” says Claire Carpenter, president and CEO of the El Cajon Community Development Corp. “We want to eliminate developer risk by doing the planning and being ready to issue permits. They will have an environmental impact report in place and have the due diligence done before they start their work.”

El Cajon has a solid industrial use market, but the city is built out and vacancy rates are low, says Carpenter. So, like most cities in the region, El Cajon is focusing on infill and creating a new urban core.

Five new office or mixed-use with office space projects have been approved for the downtown area and will be started this year, Carpenter says.

“Interest in moving businesses to El Cajon is stronger than ever, because it’s less expensive and we’ve got wonderful amenities, including a wide range of housing that can fit everyone from the employees to the CEO,” she says. “We’re especially attractive to businesses that want to buy, because the owners recognize it’s a good investment.”

Outlying El Cajon is growing too, reports Deanna Weeks, president and CEO of the East County Economic Development Council. She points to how fast the new business park at Gillespie Field filled up. “The economy is good and technology is growing very fast here, and we’re seeing a lot of defense spending,” Weeks says. “East County has affordable housing and better accessibility, along with lower leasing rates.”

Santee is girding for that growth, with the RiverView Professional Center slated to break ground soon. Close to the trolley, the complex will have 62,500 square feet in six buildings that will be sold and leased. “We expect to see technology companies leading the way,” says Pam White, Santee’s director of economic development and housing.

Across the San Diego River, the Cuyamaca Town Commons, a 38,400-square-foot commercial office condominium complex will wrap up construction and open its doors this year, while the 5,725-square-foot Gateway commercial center is planned on the eastern end of Mission Gorge Road.

With two new credit unions and the 11,500-square-foot Navy Medical Center opening this year, Santee hopes more of its residents can find good jobs closer to home.

That’s what Poway planned to do when it broke ground on the Poway Business Park 15 years ago. Over time, it turned out to be a good plan, says Sandag’s Cox, although initial investors may beg to differ.

“Businesses are very interested in Poway,” says Poway’s Director of Redevelopment, Deborah Johnson. “We’ve got an educated workforce and everyone knows about the quality of our schools. It makes sense to site a business here.”

The business park almost is built out, Johnson says, with 800,000 of the 1 million square feet used. And the vacancy rates are very low. Still, the city plans to enhance the business park, which now holds about 18,000 jobs.

The city also is working with Hampton Suites hotels to site a hotel in the business park and put a restaurant next door.

In 2006, Poway will be working to revitalize its old town, with five-year forgivable loans for landscaping, parking lot and façade improvements for businesses in the redevelopment areas. Mindful of how redevelopment can drive out existing businesses, Poway is working on a program to protect the heritage business, Johnson says. “The mom and pop businesses that define and support our community can be hurt as property changes hands and rents necessarily increase,” she says. “We’re glad to have the new businesses and the tax base, but we want to keep our heritage, too.”

Johnson and her staff are looking at ways to keep the mom-and-pops, whether it’s through loans and counseling to help with the transition to higher rents, helping to find investors and partners, or just helping longtime business owners plan better to be able to stay.

“Nobody is supposed to get hurt in redevelopment,” she says.