Edition: March 2006



 Downtown Relocations

 By Manny Cruz



Grah Safe & Lock Loses Key Space
Redevelopment and market rates will
push the 92-year-old firm out of Downtown






Glenn Younger owns Grah Safe & Lock Inc. at 1515 Fourth Ave. with his wife, Bridgett.

Glenn and Bridgett Younger knew last June they would have to move their newly purchased business — Grah Safe & Lock at 1515 Fourth Ave. — because of the impending sale of the building housing the firm. But they didn’t know they would be forced out of Downtown. “We’re priced out of this market,” says Glenn Younger. “We have to look elsewhere.” He says he can’t afford the $3-per-square foot cost of Downtown retail space, which would require him and his wife to foot $30,000 a month in rent.

At press time, the Youngers were still looking for another location for their business, one of San Diego’s oldest companies. It was founded in 1914 by Rudolph Grah. (In 1927, when Charles Lindbergh was building the Spirit of St. Louis, he had Grah install security locks on the aircraft.)

Skandia Construction Services Inc. purchased the retail building from the Hartung Family Trust for $6 million as part of a redevelopment project on the block bounded by Fourth and Fifth avenues and Beech and Cedar Streets. Skandia intends to build 184 residential condominiums on the property. Skandia built The Mills at Sixth Avenue and Cedar Street and last year closed on the Fourth Avenue Corporate Center. It is now converting the building to for-sale condos.

Bill Shrader of Burnham Real Estate * Oncor International represented Skandia in the purchase of the 1515 Fourth Ave. property. Brad Thornberg represented the Hartung Family Trust. The Youngers purchased the lock and safe company from Frank Hartung.

Younger says most of his customers are Downtown businesses. The 22-employee company provides locks and services to eight of the 10 Class A buildings Downtown.

When the Youngers move, it will be the sixth relocation for the 92-year-old business, but the first outside of Downtown. It was at Third Avenue and F Street between 1914 and 1917, at 1111 Broadway between 1917 and 1945, at 816 Market St. between 1945 and 1991, at 1049 Island Ave. from 1991 to 2002 and at its present location since 2002.

***

Fredrickson, Mazeika & Grant, a business litigation law firm at 550 West C St., is leaving Downtown for a 19,700-square-foot commercial building at 5720 Oberlin Drive in Sorrento Mesa. The building was sold to FMG Real Estate LLC for $3.15 million by the Marshall and Kathy Wax Family Trust and the Price-Wax Family Trust. Doug Ceresia and Marten Barry Jr. of NAI San Diego represented the seller. FMG members Dennis Fredrickson, Tomas Mazeika and Timothy Grant, represented themselves.

***

Needle & Rosenberg PC, an Atlanta-based intellectual property law firm, has opened a new office Downtown. Biotech attorney Cathryn Campbell, formerly of McDermott, Will & Emery, has joined the firm as of counsel and will serve as a member of the biotechnology practice group and lead the California office. The address is 501 W. Broadway, 19th floor. The phone is (619) 994-2056.

***

TSA Contracting has been awarded the construction contract for The Apartments @ 655 Broadway, a four-story, 12-unit apartment building that is part of Lankford & Associates’ Broadway 655. An interest list is forming; call (619) 702-0655. Work is expected to be completed late this year. The 15,428 square feet of space will cost about $4.2 million. Carrier Johnson Architects of San Diego is providing architectural design. JG Architects of Irvine is the production architect. TSA representatives include Pete Hunter as senior project manager, Gabe Beal as assistant project manager, Olga Munoz as project coordinator and Terry S. Arnett as project executive.

***

Johnson & Jennings General Contracting has completed tenant improvements for the 6,000-square-foot offices of Irving Hughes at 655 Broadway. Kirt Gilliland, senior v.p. of project management for Irving Hughes, provided oversight for the project. Jeff Hollander of Gensler Architects was space planner and interior designer. The design of the $800,000 project features silk fabric wall panels and English walnut-wood paneling, as well as snow-white marble flooring and countertops throughout the space. Full-height glass walls and doors were installed in the private offices. Dean Petersen was project manager for Johnson & Jennings, with Dave Back as onsite superintendent.

***

The San Diego office of SCS Engineers has completed environmental consulting services for the site of The Legend, a new 23-story residential tower at 325 Seventh Ave. in East Village. SCS Engineers was retained by developer Bosa Development California II to prepare a property mitigation plan and perform pre-construction consulting and environmental engineering for the site.

Historically, the site housed a variety of uses including a training center for Safeway grocery stores, a Piggly Wiggly grocery retail outlet, a vehicle maintenance facility for the Salvation Army, an Armour Meats plant and the San Diego Fire Department. The Legend will be located on the southern half of the property and will be surrounded by low-rise townhomes with ground-floor retail space. The project also will include below-grade parking.

The Downtown Relocations column features news on firms that are abandoning, embracing or expanding in the 92101 ZIP code. Send submissions to Manny Cruz, manny@sandiegometro.com.


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