I found this on a press release related to Stingaree, from EnDev, the company that brought us stingaree, sidebar, and others, I guess has a new hillcrest venture in mind:

• Universal—Opening fall 2007, this Hillcrest destination will cater to professionals who seek a sophisticated, yet comfortable dining and entertainment venue.

Does anyone know where this going to be located? And more importantly, is Hillcrest going upscale? As much as I'd love new bars over there (not including univ. heights), (especially something with a decent patio for the LOVE OF GOD), does this mean I have to pay 20 dollars to get in even in hillcrest?

this isn't about development, but interesting discovery at the development site at 16th and market ;)

Mammoth discovery downtown
UNION-TRIBUNE
August 30, 2007

Workers excavating the site of the old St. Vincent de Paul thrift store downtown just made a stunning discovery – an 8-foot-long fossil thought to be the tusk of a Columbian mammoth.

The prehistoric “elephant” tusk, 10 inches in diameter at its thickest end, could be as much as 500,000 years old, said Thomas Demere, curator of paleontology at the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Columbian mammoths were known to inhabit the county between 100,000 and 500,000 years ago, and fossils of skulls, jawbones, molars and tusks – though none as big as this one – have been found in the San Luis Rey River Valley in Oceanside.



But 27 years of excavations in downtown San Diego have revealed primarily fossils of marine life, Demere said.
“All of a sudden we have this spectacular, startling discovery,” he said. “It's the most exciting paleontological find ever made in downtown San Diego. We now can clearly say that mammoths lived in this area.”

Father Joe Carroll of St. Vincent de Paul Village is excited about the discovery and wants to make sure, once an analysis is completed, that the public will see it.

The tusk was unearthed 30 feet down (13 feet above sea level) during excavation of the nonprofit's land at 16th and Market streets, where a 14-story housing project will be built. Demere immediately encased the tusk in a plaster cast for protection, and it will be hoisted out of the hole tomorrow afternoon for further evaluation at the museum.

Carroll praised the Roel Construction crew for recognizing the enormity of the find and helping with the tusk's recovery.

While the homeless shelter is officially the fossil's owner, Carroll said he wants to work in partnership with the museum to make sure the public has access to it.

“It's amazing to think that a Columbian mammoth walked on the same streets as we're walking on,” he said.

When he learned the mammoth ate about 700 pounds of vegetation a day, Carroll said, “I'm glad it's dead. I couldn't afford to feed it.”

Yes, I saw this site the other day going to Trader Joe's (PLEASE open one downtown!!!!). I'm not sure the cross street name but it is on University Avenue near the Ralph's/Trader Joe's shopping complex. I noticed the banner on the construction and have been meaning to look it up. It says something about being the world's first "omnisexual" lounge, so not sure what that means.
The construction itself looks kind of shotty though, expecially compared to dowtnown. It looks like typical wood construction that you would see on a home not the concrete and steel construction we see dowtown
Hillcrest/North Park are seeing alot of development, but the people who live in those communities are even worse than the ones downtown when it comes to being "anti-development". I used to live in North Park, and all my neighbors would protest anytime a "high-rise" (meaning over 4 stories) was planned.
There is a residential tower on the north end of Balboa Park that has topped out. I forget the name of it, but its very high end and will have awesome views of the park/downtown

At least three cruise ship berths I would think is absolutely essential. I've seen 3 ships in town already, but anything you can do to make it more attractive for both the companies as well as passengers will improve the economic benefits. The Dawn Princess ship, which I was just on for my honeymoon Alaskan cruise the last week and a half, is relocating to San Diego as it's new home port in September to start doing Mexican Riviera runs.

On our cruise, one stop was Juneau, the state capitol with 40,000 residents. The day we were in port, they had FIVE cruise ships there. Four were docked, one was tendered. Apparently, according to our guide on one tour, the city is adding another pier to hold two more ships, and plans within 5-10 years to add another two berths, so potentially this city could handle 9 cruise ships at once. With all the room San Diego has along the waterfront, there's no reason they couldn't handle at least 3-4 ships at once. I realize there's fewer ships down here vs Alaska, but the "if you build it, they will come" attitude does and CAN work, just as we see already with the increased cruise traffic to San Diego. But they need to build a beautiful port of entry there for passengers. Even San Francisco, supposedly a maritime-rich city, has a horrendous and extremely unsightly cruise ship terminal, something even the captain of our ship said is killing the city as a embarkation point or even a stop for cruise ships, they dont have adequate facilities and I think he said there's only one cruise company (Princess) left that operates in/out of San Francisco, aside from the fact that SF is just an inconvenient spot for ANY cruise.... Alaska cruises should go out of Seattle or Vancouver, Mexico ones should go from SD or LA.

Quick update on Costa Verde taken yesterday:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1436/...a39ff136_b.jpg

Wow, it looks like that crane on that project is lifting 4 I-beams simultaneously!

As an aside, I believe a HSR station is proposed for the UTC area.

^I think a trolley station is planned, too.

Yeah! SANDAG is studying an extension of the Trolley from Old Town up to UTC area. Both UCSD and the Westfield development would have stations... along with ones at Balboa and a couple other places. I have doubts it'll happed tho. Unfortunately it is looking too expensive relative to the benefit.

I like the idea. Construction prices suck. :(

An agenda and supporting materials have been posted on the CCDC web site for the CCAC Pre-Design Subcommittee. Two of three projects are proposals for semi-tall hotels immediately between the El Cortez and Symphony Towers. But, i don't beieve either is taller than 20 floors. This block is bounded by 7th, 8th, Ash and A Street. One project, "719 Ash" is located on the northside and faces El Cortez. The second is "1342 8th Avenue" and faces east.

The third project, "1492 K Street" is a smaller hotel in a part of the East Village that is in dire need of improvements. This is the edge of bum-ville and drug dealing corners.

719 Ash - Hotel Proposal

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n...19AshHotel.jpg



1342 8th Avenue - Hotel Proposal

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n...hAve-Hotel.jpg


1492 K Street - 5 Floor Hotel

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n...1492KHotel.jpg

Thanks for posting! If it wasn't for the odd design in the light brown portion of the building, this is a nice looking tower.

If you download the entire package, you'll see that the "light brown" portion of the building is copper panels. This will be awsome, as it patenas over time!

Happy to see something other than condos being proposed for downtown San Diego.

Oh, I see. The brown to turquoise tint is something I like.;)

1342 8th Ave
 

I like the hotel rendering, unique design, hopefully it gets built :tup:

I really think that with the condo slow-down we are going to see a hotel boom over the next two years. Even though it seems like we already have alot of hotels, the market analysis shows new hotels are profitable downtown

My first choice would be for a business and civic boom, but hotels are better than stopping development entirely

A beautiful Labor Day weekend. A few updates.

La Jolla Commons:

In this first (blurry) photo you can see the midrise is now well above ground level (white arrow) and the lowrise 8 story building (on the right) is having cladding installed.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1401/...61b3049d_o.jpg

Another angle:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1024/...eba53e93_o.jpg

And a close-up of the cladding on the lowrise:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1321/...fc3b52fa_o.jpg

Bonus:

Here's a contextual view so you can get a sense of how the Costa Verde Project is changing the University City skyline. Extra bonus points if you know where I took this one from...

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1067/...12750d19_o.jpg

My guess is somewhere west of I5 along, or off of, Gilman Drive between Evening Way and Villa La Jolla Drive. Probably east of Gillman tho. Maybe off of a roof or a balcony from one of the condo's there.

^^ That mid-rise isn't a mid-rise so to speak. It is the parking structure.

They must be having a tough time installing that spiffy new radar at Miramar because they still haven't made any vertical progress on the office tower.

A ballon!

Not to start another bout of complaining, but I think it's sad how so many of the University City towers are that crappy stucco. Venture over to the Bellevue construction thread to see what UC should look like.