Nice! Soon the Pepper Canyon towers will start rising directly behind it. UCSD is rife with projects right now. There are a series of towers at its southwestern corner that are clearly visible from the beach at La Jolla Shores as well. It's my alma mater so I'm always excited to see what's going on there.

EDIT: also realized that after 20+ years I finally reached 500 posts.

Good to finally see digging equipment on the Clairemont Dr site across from Trolley stop I heard it is now going to be 300 apartments from Zephyr Development. That empty lot is such an eyesore.

I have also noticed 2 parcels on El Cajon Blvd that have been demolished and cleared yet no construction has started. One is near Ohio St the other further west at Louisiana. Hopefully things get moving there soon.

Random question: Why is Civita taking its sweet time building out all of those flat parcels in the lower section of their property? The newer apartments have now been complete for over a year. Why are they phasing things out super slowly? You would think with demand being so high and a recession looming they would want to pump out as many units as possible. Thanks.

City, SDSU moving forward with plans for Mission Valley bridge over San Diego River

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...an-diego-river

Always thought they could put a bridge there to relieve traffic issues.

Ok some rinky dink bridge that is awesome but when are we going to get the construction timeline on the 4500 housing units for students and teachers and 2.5 million square feet of campus expansion space? I haven't heard anything about this. We voted in 2018 to have SDSU step up and be more like UCSD and rapidly expand, so lets get rolling folks :shrug:

Bummer about the Padres. At least you guys were able to take down the Dodgers though.

Runaway success for all these new office buildings being built downtown including Horton Plaza redo with bioscience companies filling the spaces quickly definitely will be the case, and it will excel the downtown core to BE THE SPOT in the whole metro for live/work and play. World class city!!!!!!

Major League Soccer moves closer to San Diego expansion

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...dragon-stadium

SD can be considered world class when our best assets are made accessible and sustainable. Perhaps the best weather of any major city in the world, yet most of the time you need to be stuck in a car to live any kind of convenient lifestyle. And biking infrastucture is still way too meager for most to feel safe doing it. The most vibrant neighborhoods we have feel pretty dead pedestrian-wise compared to other tighter knit cities. Everything great is spread pretty far apart here.

Downtown is truly on it's way to being great (having new actual office workers moving in will help a lot!), but it's still missing a lot for residents and feels pretty dead outside of major events or tourist enclaves. I live there, so I'm not necessarily hating on it as I enjoy it how it is. But world-class it is not.

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Manchester debuts plans for 36-story bay-view hotel that would be one of the largest in San Diego
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...c-gateway-site

Two years after selling off much of its 12-acre site downtown, Manchester Financial Group will soon submit plans for a 1,150-room hotel near Broadway and Pacific Highway.

Developer Doug Manchester, who is responsible for building San Diego’s single biggest hotel, is close to submitting plans for a new 36-story, 1,150-room hotel tower that would be located just a block from the downtown waterfront.

While a large convention hotel was always destined for what is a Navy-owned site going back more than 30 years ago, it was only in the last few years that the Manchester Financial Group began working on — and designing — the current $550 million project.

It will also likely be the last big hotel development undertaken by the 80-year-old Manchester, says Ted Eldredge, president of the financial group. Manchester developed the 1,628-room Manchester Grand Hyatt near the city’s bayfront convention center, as well as the Fairmont Grand Del Mar in Carmel Valley. He no longer owns either one.

What remains a big unknown is whether Manchester Financial will be able to secure financing and an equity partner in the current economic environment of rapidly escalating interest rates and construction costs.

The near-term plan, Eldredge said, is to submit plans to the city of San Diego some time in November for the purpose of eventually obtaining building permits. If Manchester Financial Group is successful in securing financing next year, the hotel could potentially be under construction by the very end of 2023 or early 2024, Eldredge estimates.

He expects that construction would take about 30 months. Manchester Financial is currently in talks with a luxury hotel chain to operate the property, he added.

Designing the new hotel is San Diego-based Gensler, which describes the look as a contemporary design, with Art Deco and mid-century modern influences. The all-glass facade is accented with bronze and gold tones, and the lower level of the structure has a creamy limestone exterior. Interior spaces are embellished with plush blue fabrics, backlit crystal and large-scale art installations.

The more contemporary look is a definite change of pace for Manchester, whose previous projects bespoke a more old world grandeur with heavier, more ornate furnishings.

“We wanted to create a sense of place unique to the waterfront, so the design relates to our climate in terms of having meeting space and restaurants and bars that open to the outdoors and spill out onto the plaza and the park, so it’s not just glass walls,” said J. Kevin Heinly, a managing director with Gensler. “The use of bronze metals and their warmth harken back to art deco, and the bronze cap on top of the building will be illuminated. So bronze is used throughout the project, whether it’s decorative metal around the elevators or in the restaurants and bars.”

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A mediocre disappointment, much like the rest of the projects on this block.

Manchester Hotel
 

What would make the hotel stand out, would be a huge sculpture, right on Harbor Drive. Something like the “bean” in Chicago. A passive little park won’t cut it. Right now the waterfront looks boring. We need “Art”. Something that will attract people. Wake up, San Diego.

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This would be a great filler tower. It's bulky, I can appreciate the gold accents (even if it's a bit 70's looking), and has some decent height.

That said, this tower will be the face of San Diego forever. Nothing will rise in front of it to block it out. It's also the tallest building in the Pacific Gateway section of blocks. With that in mind, I want something high quality that stands out. I'd prefer something less bulky, but I suppose the massing is more-or-less set in stone. But the facade should be exciting and stand out.

Sadly, a lot of this article talks about financing concerns, so if anything we'll get either this design or a value engineered version of it. :(

Exactly. It has a whiff of mid-70s Tulsa Holiday Inn. To me the best case scenario is that they don’t get their financing and someone goes back to the drawing board for a new design. The bulkiness, the gold and brown accent colors, the way the entrance is buried underneath the massive amenities podium…it’s all aggressively bland, and it certainly doesn’t deserve such a prominent location on the waterfront.

Uh they are just now "submitting plans" I thought they had already done all of this and the hotel was set to break ground any day now. Wow what have they been doing this whole time? They had all these plans and supposedly financing in place years ago. Now with the Fed continuing to hike rates and massive energy crisis in Europe about to drag down the world economy he goes out and looks for financing. Real smart old Dougie... not sure this one will make it...

Wow, it's literally just a box. They really went all-out on this one.

Now I understand when someone uses the term "Mid".
It looks like it was designed by Lego.

Same with the Ritz Carlton project (7th/Market).

Is that project still alive? That’s another one that supposedly had financing lined-up years ago and it’s still a parking lot. The design came out in 2015 I believe and nothing yet.

If it is still happening, is its trajectory the same as Manchester’s hotel? Not sure downtown SD would be able to support two huge luxury hotels hitting the market at the same time.

I really like Pacific Gate, that’s not a mediocre tower. But I’m worried this nasty, tacky gold behemoth Manchester is proposing will draw all the attention and not in a good way.

The towers along harbor have lots of blue and glass not sure why Manchester and his team think a 70s-pimp style building with gaudy gold accents and dark brown would fit in there.

Time will tell: very encouraged

Pacific Gate wouldn't be considered part of that block, so I don't think they were referring to that one as mediocre. But yeah, it's really a shame that this tower is going to cover up Pacific Gate. That and One America Plaza served as great landmark towers downtown. This box will just be... there. Bosa needs to go all out on their sister tower to Pacific Gate.