Ritz?

Hellz yeah! I also liked the other architectural rendering as well but whatever.

Build it.

Anyone know when the finalist for the 7th & Market site will be selected? Does anyone have pics of the other renderings?

I agree with the other posters, the Ritz tower will transform EV. I wonder if the grocery would be Whole Foods? It looks like a pretty huge space. I like the design at ground level of the entrance to the hotel and food store which looks like it would on the east corner of Market.

I guess now we need to get more info. All the renderings and information I found was on cisterra's website - I can't find any info on this project anywhere else. I'm curious if anyone has anymore info like possibly a timeline? This is supposed to go up next to that Hilton I believe it is, would they both be able to overlap in construction being that close together? Let's find the timeline and get this thing built, this is definitely one I don't want languishing ;)

Since Cisterra is doing Sempra as well makes sense that will be completed first, but that one is almost complete and it went up quick. Hope they move quick on this one as well !

So, the way I found this was by coming across an old article on 7th and Market from almost a year ago that said three developers - Cisterra, Douglas Wilson, and Robert Green Co, were the three finalists. I went on each of their websites, and Cisterra is the only one with 7th and Market on their website, and they did not say they were bidding - they say they already have agreement/interest with Ritz. I have no idea how long ago this happened as I just found the renderings last night. I'm guessing it has been a relatively recent decision since nobody has heard about it.

I think someone actually found one of the other renderings a couple months ago, and it is somewhere in this thread.

I'm just nervous right now with the legislation in the state regarding more city oversight of Civic San Diego. I'm not sure at what point projects will be impacted by that, but regardless I don't see why the city council wouldn't approve this - it's a solid design, the Ritz will really bolster downtown's image as a world-class destination, and the city has been trying to develope that site for many, many years. I also think that site is city owned, yeah?

Some other news - BRAVO's TV series Top Chef will be featuring California this season, and will include SD.

Usually the series chooses one city - past include NYC, SF, LA, Miami, Boston, Chicago, LV - to host the contest and features the culinary culture of that city in the backdrop of the program. It's really good exposure for the culinary aspects of a city.

This season they are doing "California" instead of selecting a single city, and episodes will be in LA, SF, SD, Oakland, PS, and SB.

Not as exciting as if SD would have been chosen as the sole city to host, but still good exposure to have an episode or two here.

Coming this fall.

To the poster regarding the Chargers stadium capacity, it reads that it'll be XX,000 capacity regularly, with the ability to expand up for Super Bowls and bowl games with additional temporary seating. A lot of places do this (The Cowboys stadium can accommodate over 100,000 technically by selling standing-only tickets). I have no doubt if they move forward with a stadium it will qualify for Super Bowls. The NFL wants to be back in San Diego as we were on the short list of good destinations (Arizona, New Orleans, Atlanta, Miami) that the NFL would probably like to use regularly. Qualcomm disqualified us back in 2002 or whenever we last hosted (Raiders/Bucs). As soon as a new stadium is built we'll get back in the rotation, though not as often anymore now that the NFL is ok going to cold weather cities.

Also, no one's really talking about the huge stake SDSU has to have in this stadium. I haven't really heard anyone talk about what they'll do if the Chargers leave. SDSU can't afford upkeep on Qualcomm to take it over for their games only, so I'm curious how much they would contribute to get a new facility built. I think the future of their program depends on it, as they don't make any money and they're not rising again to the early 90's prominence they once had.

I agree to an extent with this. Democratized land use and planning is all but absurd. I am not about to say zoning laws are too intrusive. There seems to be a general consensus in this that if you live in a certain neighborhood (or not re: the one paseo petition or Barrio Logan) you have a right to say what someone else does with THEIR property. Property owners in San Diego and California are not allowed as much freedom to do what they want with their own land. If a building meets all the engineering and construction specifications why should the community have anything to say about its appearance, or if poor people are allowed to live there at the expense of tax payers or future property owners, or what trees are in front of it? That's just my opinion. If it wasn't so hard to build here there would be more affordable houses (not affordable housing) which in turn would grow our middle class.

I came from the middle of nowhere Iowa. Growing up we remodeled our house and built a 20x50 foot building with no permits what so ever. I remember having to dig those holes for the building by hand. I read on that San Diego permitting website a business owner had to pay the city 300 dollars for an application to put a sign up in their store. I can't understand that.

Moral of the story is too many cooks spoil the broth. This was more of a "my 2 cents" post than anything worth commenting on.

Did anyone see the article about the "potentially historic building" that was bulldozed in the few hour period between when the permit was issued and subsequently rescinded?
http://sandiegofreepress.org/2015/06...ion-activists/

Not to mention that a overwhelming majority of our public money spent on anything built will be payed to locals. Not a give-away. All public money back into the local blue-collar economy jobs. BTW all those jobs will be union.

Billion+ public money put right back into local businesses and a brand new city jewel? Seems good to me.

We should feel ashamed that we've let our property get to this point.

I noticed the house was gone this past week. I used to work for Lambda Archives. All I have to say is, the picture will last longer anyways...

So when the Chargers leave San Diego is going to solve these issues? Like they have a correlation....

If San Diego is such a world class and diverse city as you claim, it should be able to support an NFL team and have the resources to fix all of the quality of life issues you want to focus on.

Looks like this development is 41 floors. It would seem that this is the design selected by the city...can anyone confirm this?

This Skyscraper forum cracks me up...everyone will banter all day long about the Chargers, taxes, and politics, but nobody has an insights, pictures, or discussions about development...god bless.

You're right. Because taxes and politics don't affect development in San Diego, and the Charger's/Qualcomm proposal isn't a significant development at all... Yeah, okay, spoonman.

:haha: Lololololololololz :haha:

Please, bring on the shinny renderings, I'm all for that too.

I'm talking about priorities, not a correlation. Do you read my posts, or are you just slamming your head on the keyboard when you respond?

Calling San Diego a world class city is a stretch. Diverse, yes. And San Diego could support an NFL team, after it fixes higher priority problems that are crippling it from becoming a world class city. I'd love it if San Diego had a bottomless sack of money and political capital, but it doesn't. Reality is a bee.

I'm curious as to how a Ritz Carlton that large would be supported by our market. Most of our luxury resorts are on the coast, north of downtown. Only the U.S. Grant comes to mind, and that place isn't that posh. Downtown has struggled to attract large, high-end hotels because we mostly attract domestic, middle income tourists who want to go to the zoo and beach. If there is a real demand for this type of hotel brand, that would be great news for San Diego with the breakthrough of a new market segment for downtown.

The Pendry (by Montage) which is U/C is extremely high end as well. I think that you are starting to see a shift in the tourist demographic that is as interested in visiting downtown as much as the beach, etc. Also, it seems that many hoteliers are banking on an expanded convention center in some form. Last, while not as big of a factor, more international flights helps with well heeled business travelers and tourists.

I do read your posts but you're not worth more effort than responding to while I drink my coffee.

I have yet to read where you say something like they should only do the Chargers stadium IF they also budget to fix X, Y and Z.

While SD does not have a bottomless sack of money, it's a city that's going to continue to grow in population. My view is that the best way to solve the infrastructure issues is to go up rather than out. Smart urban development = less stress on the system.

Just a few days ago we all rejoiced with the news of the Ritz project on market but do you honestly think this project would happen and next to the Sempra building if Petco Park did not exist? I don't. I remember when that part of town was a stop signs are optional section. Now it's home to thousands of people who live, work and play in the same space.

The plan for a downtown stadium could have done similar. It could have led to a faster roll out of that side of town and made it so there were multiple 15&Island type projects. Don't get me wrong, there will be more of those but I don't think as many as if there was a stadium. That's a loss for San Diego as a whole. A loss of tax revenue combined with a less desirable growth model that impacts the infrastructure needs of the city as a whole.

If this all comes down to you not wanting to line the pockets of the Spanos family, I can respect that. A new stadium will grow their wealth for sure. But a new stadium in San Diego would add to the bottom line like Petco.

When the Chargers leave it will be an opportunity lost.

I'm really liking the Ritz. It looks very tall, one of the tallest in the city hopefully. It'll help San Diego look very dense from viewers at the ballpark or on television.

I was browsing the San Diego Streets twitter feed when I saw this post from last month showing the Jonathan Segal project in Hillcrest. I like all of his work:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CFJZc8-UEAA9SOq.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CFJZcuEVEAAc8d0.jpg

I think with the size of our downtown a major luxury brand is overdue. While you are correct that a lot of tourists to SD are the family crowd that goes to the zoo, etc., there has been an increase in the upscale market downtown. This can be seen in the restaurants and some clubs so it makes sense it would follow in hotels. The only Ritz I've stayed in was in SF and it was for a company meeting. It seemed like they relied pretty heavily on the corporate crowd more so than the upscale tourist crowd. The SD location could probably attract small and medium sized corporate events as well. Furthermore, I don't think a company like Ritz Carlton would commit without having done their market research. I heard rumors that Mandarin Oriental was talking with the Navy Broady Complex people awhile back, so I think the big names have been scoping out downtown for awhile now and it was only a matter of time before one made the move. The biggest surprise for me is not that a large luxury hotel will be built, but more so the location. I thought it would happen on the bay. But, the 7th and Market location and that height will have some awesome views of the ballpark and the water. Another thing to keep in mind is that development won't be all the hotel, there will be some condos as well as office space. The hotel itself will be 184 rooms which is above average, but it's not enormous. Definitely sustainable in my opinion.

Are they breaking with the Egyptian theme, or will there be some of that in this project? I actually really like this area with the Egyptian theme mixed in with Art Deco - it's subtle and historical, and not gaudy. I'm glad that little Egyptian courtyard apartment building next to this was spared, it's a historical treasure. So, with the Egyptian and the Cairo (and isn't something there called the Nile?) what will this be called? Cleopatra tower? :D

And you bring up a good point about television - a tower like that with the big Ritz logo on it, the Ritz will get a lot of free advertising during televised games