Very sad news for Downtown San Diego!!!!! Hole in the middle of downtown will be created and last for years. Possible another hole a block away since residents have emptied out the SRO on C street. The building is completely unsafe for occupancy and no intention of the building owner to rehab it. 2 holes in one scoop for downtown. Not good at all.

Don't even get me going regarding 101 Ash.

4th & B is getting razed to make way for a 32-story tower:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...d-office-tower

Anybody have more info?

Oh! So thats the lot on the same block as the old California Theatre... mystery solved. The demo equipment I saw show up on site is for this new "4th & B" (345 B), not the theatre. It just so happens the city is also eying demolition of the theatre for safety reasons, but it's unrelated to this recent activity nearby for a seperate development.

Also, great news for a new office / hotel. This takes part of the sting out of the failed theatre development.

Some NIMBY clowns trying to kill off the new sports arena development.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...t-height-limit

I heard thru the grapevine that they're taking infrastructure (power/water equipment) out of the Fry's building.

Possible demolition to make way for something else?

Another demo???? Project most likely won't get built for awhile, if not ever.

An unfortunately too common San Diego phrase.

Though this is happening in North County/San Marcos I thought that is it an exciting project that doesn't get enough attention.

https://www.northcity.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVtIYfz99Eg
https://sdarchitecture.org/wp-conten...rth-City-2.jpg

Having walked through it myself it does feel more urban than the rest of north county. Their project focuses on walkability being a priority in the community which is rare for north county and it looks like they are going to be adding a bunch more housing/buildings/amenities. The only thing I think it is lacking is a grocery store or something because it is very resturaunt-heavy and there will be a lot of residents there that will still have to take a car to get groceries.

Yeah every TOD-style development needs a standard-fare grocery store as soon as possible. Not a boutique or artisanal cheese shop, just a regular medium-sized store with milk and eggs.

I'm glad to see more developments like this. Is it connected to the Sprinter? That would really help

Connected, no. But there's a station half a mile away.

New Airport Connections
 

SANDAG held a virtual information session earlier this week to discuss seemingly two distinct, but related projects.

1. Central Mobility Hub The project looks focused on building the multi-modal transit center Downtown.
2. Central Mobility Hub & Connections This project includes Caltrans as a partner, and more focused on developing a comprehensive multimodal corridor plan for Midway District, Old Town San Diego, parts of Point Loma, and Downtown San Diego.

The meeting materials posted publicly, 090822_CMH_Public_Meeting_Presentation.pdf include mostly updates on project #2 with attention to the Port Transit Center at Middletown. Nothing new about the downtown CMH.

I'm most interested in slides 30 - 32 describing 3 different routes for the trolley, people mover, dedicated bus routes, etc.

• Slide 30 is the most conservative, includes a trolley/people mover along harbor drive from the airport to the Port property and rental car center. A few dedicated transit lanes are also proposed for nearby areas.
• Slide 31, Concept 1 – Spur Along Pacific Highway, is the most interesting, proposing a trolley/people mover from the airport, to the Port property and rental car center but continues on along parallel to the 5 running through Sports Arena all the way up to OB. If they can make the frequencies work for a this alignment, I'm ALL for it. Not only will there be a direct rail connection to the beach, but you'll also connect the new arena and the thousands of proposed housing units to be built on that site. This plan includes dedicated transit lanes too.
• Slide 32, Concept 2 – Closed-Loop People Mover, proposes a people mover running in a big circle around the airport, MCRD, Liberty Station, turning on Nimitz to Harbor Drive and back to the airport along with dedicated transit lanes. I don't see how this concept serves the area better than Concept #1 and I hope it's sunset quickly.

What do you all think?

I'm glad they are considering a rail transit connection to OB via the Midway District. That's definitely preferred for me. That and a rail connection to Hillcrest/North Park was always a no brainer for me.

San Diego selects Midway Rising to redevelop sports arena site
In the real estate competition to lease and redo the city’s 48-acre sports arena site, San Diego has selected as its winner the development team proposing the most affordable residential units.

City Council members voted 7-1 on Tuesday to select Midway Rising. The vote came after a sometimes-heated discussion that put the team, its partners and even potential subcontractors under the microscope on a variety of topics, including allegations of deceptive labor practices.

Midway Rising includes market-rate housing developer Zephyr, sports-and-entertainment venue operator Legends and affordable-housing builder Chelsea Investment Corp. The team is proposing to develop the city’s sports arena holdings with 2,000 units deed-restricted for low- and very-low-income families at an average affordability of 48 percent of the area median income.

The group’s plan also calls for 250 middle-income units, 2,000 market-rate units, a new 16,000-seat arena, a 200-room hotel and 4,500 parking spaces. The project includes 20 acres of plaza and park space, including 4.2 acres of rooftop parks.

Team members from Midway Rising’s now-eliminated rivals also sought to call attention to perceived flaws in the winning bid.

“I’m perplexed why we are not asking tough questions regarding the arena proposals. A new 16,000-seat arena with parking (and) 4,000 new residential units does not fit on this site. This is putting 20 pounds of stuff in a 10-pound bag that will crush the Midway District and the surrounding communities,” said Erik Judson, who is CEO of JMI Sports and is part of the HomeTownSD team.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...rts-arena-site

HomeTownSDTeam was probably the best example of trying to go backwards. I would like to have seen a arena closer in size to 18,000 but at least 16,000 is better than 14,500 and going down to a 10,000 figure for an arena is a joke since the arena was the main feature intended for this development.

Even the new Frontwave Arena opening in Oceanside next year will seat 6,000-7,500 and it’s hardly a major replacement project for the cities main arena. 10,000?:slob:

I have my issues with the designs and the winning design, but this project being too dense is nowhere near one of them. Sounds like he's trying to drum up NIMBY support against the City's pick.

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It fills in the gap in the middle pretty nicely!

Agreed, it adds some nice bulk to the skyline there

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