Originally Posted by FromSD (Post 10198686)

The five-level unadorned parking podium on that proposed high rise helps explain why there is so much pushback to the city's attempts to add more density in close-in neighborhoods.

Originally Posted by mello (Post 10202372)

I was walking in that dead zone of downtown at 13th and E and noticed a hole in the ground with a crane? Is this part of that big 2 block Kilroy project?

Hillcrest: Small lot but a crane is up and something is rising just east of Whole Foods and B of A on University and 8th.

East on University Herbert St across from that Red building that has been there a few years now has a rendering of a development on the old crappy mattress shop that I've been eyeing for ages now for a residential project. Great to see Hillcrest adding tons of units after years of relative stagnation with adding housing.

Originally Posted by staplesla (Post 10204083)

The cacophony of construction activity at the sprawling Riverwalk project site that follows Friars Road just west of Fashion Valley mall has been replaced with nothingness as the promise of nearly a thousand homes is suspended until market conditions improve.

After completing $90 million worth of infrastructure improvements, including a new bike lane along Friars Road and all of the on-site utility and foundation work, Houston-based real estate investment manager Hines has hit the pause button on its $4 billion mega project.

… The developer cited the cost of debt as a result of high interest rates as the main reason for the setback, but said that high construction and supply costs are also to blame.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...erwalk-project

Originally Posted by Thatguyoverwhere (Post 10204168)

Boooo :( The city needs those housing units yesterday, especially the affordable units. This one project wasn't going to singlehandedly solve homelessness or housing prices but it was going to be a very big step in the right direction, and there's no other project on this scale that feels palpably close to reality right now. Very frustrating seeing this shelved. Also, lol at the sudden update from them after I posted about it.

Originally Posted by Andy-4-SD (Post 10205211)

Interest rates are making it tough. Construction is going to be down across the board likely for the next few years... Not going to see a ton of change until either borrowing costs come down or rents come up enough for deals to make sense again. Unfortunately, with rates staying higher for longer, it's more likely than not to be the latter.

Originally Posted by Streamliner (Post 10206775)

Nice. Hope they get moving soon. I'd love a redesign that makes the tower less bland, but anything that can go up should.

Anyone been to Radd lately? I heard some of the walkways are opening up but I haven't seen much online about it.

Originally Posted by Streamliner (Post 10206775)

Anyone been to Radd lately? I heard some of the walkways are opening up but I haven't seen much online about it.

Originally Posted by DTthomas (Post 10207326)

I live a few block away and yes, many of the walkways are open now. Some of the retail locations even have there signs up (Rivian, A blinds store, and a cocktail lounge). Hopefully they'll be more announcements soon.

Originally Posted by mello (Post 10208076)

Ok all these projects falling through because money actually has a cost now and the fantasy land of super low rates following the 2008 crash have finally come to an end because inflation took forever to show up. Rates are still at below historical average and ahhh we can't build anything now. Such a joke. Oh and we will just wait for rates to come down, uh the only reason they will is when there is a massive crash or financial system has seized up and that won't be good either.

Reality is back and all of these developers will simply have to adjust to that or nothing will get built again. Like one person said a few posts ago they have made a killing these last 13 years.

Question about when developers actually "get their financing" projects like Manchester Fairmount and the Mission Valley River Walk have been planned for so many years now wouldn't they have had their financing back in 2022 before rates spiked? When does a developer actually get their rate? Those who didn't see higher rates coming after Trillions were flooded in to the system post Covid were very myopic who would think that all those printed up currency units wouldn't cause inflation hence higher rates :shrug:

Originally Posted by unpermitted_variance (Post 10208084)

I'm glad the Manchester Fairmont project is stalled. Maybe it will die and something less insulting will get proposed there instead.

Originally Posted by Jhanson312 (Post 10208251)

Higher interest rates aren't stopping development where regulations are loose. Despite recent challenges, cities like Austin and Miami continue to see new projects and maintain a healthy level of activity. I know that Florida and Texas have fundamentally different political landscapes, but CA is becoming increasingly YIMBY. The effects of easier permitting could counter higher interest rates, especially if we continue to see serious pro-housing legislations like we did last year.

Originally Posted by JerellO (Post 10216817)

Great photos!! That park/courtyard looks beautiful. Hopefully more signs of life begin to see the space and start leasing.. maybe that could attract biotech

Originally Posted by mello (Post 10217632)

I thought this whole thing was built for Biotech and had companies ready to move in that is why this RADD company paid for such expensive land to build this space on. Don't tell me this project doesn't have tenants for all the office and lab space :shrug: The retail is one thing but if this is going to be an empty white elephant biotech project good grief... There was an article in the UT about Biotech in the County being at a 14% vacancy rate and there is still tons of space in the pipeline that is UC and will be ready this year or by next summer.

Originally Posted by mello (Post 10217632)

I thought this whole thing was built for Biotech and had companies ready to move in that is why this RADD company paid for such expensive land to build this space on. Don't tell me this project doesn't have tenants for all the office and lab space :shrug: The retail is one thing but if this is going to be an empty white elephant biotech project good grief... There was an article in the UT about Biotech in the County being at a 14% vacancy rate and there is still tons of space in the pipeline that is UC and will be ready this year or by next summer.

Originally Posted by FromSD (Post 10218744)

I'm not in the commercial real estate industry, but it's seemed for a long time that Downtown San Diego has lagged as a job center for the region. The Downtown skyline has grown dramatically in the last 20 years, but the growth has been almost exclusively high rise condos and apartments. When was the last commercial skyscraper topped out Downtown? The new Sempra headquarters a few years back? And even that building isn't particularly tall. And it was added to the skyline only after Sempra moved out of their old asbestos-ridden headquarters on Ash Street (which was all of 50 years old).

So I'm inclined to give the IQHQ/RaDD folks credit for at least trying to make something happen for Downtown as a bio-tech hub. If they had tenants lined up in 2019, its quite possible that those prospects evaporated. I imagine that 5 years is a very long time in commercial real estate, especially in an industry as dynamic as bio-tech.

As far as Downtown being a job center, it doesn't help that the City seems hell-bent on dispersing employees from Downtown to more suburban locations. The City wants to move employees from the City Operations Building to Mission Valley because that building has exceeded its useful life due to shoddy maintenance practices. This is another building that is barely 50 years old. Downtown has the best public transit connections in the entire country--by far. Employees working in Mission Valley will be much less likely to take public transit, even if MV does have one trolley line. So much for the City's commitment to meeting its very ambitious carbon emissions reduction goals.

Originally Posted by Andy-4-SD (Post 10205211)

Interest rates are making it tough. Construction is going to be down across the board likely for the next few years... Not going to see a ton of change until either borrowing costs come down or rents come up enough for deals to make sense again. Unfortunately, with rates staying higher for longer, it's more likely than not to be the latter.