SAN DIEGO | Boom Rundown, Vol. 2

[Thatguyoverwhere]

Originally Posted by staplesla

The mega project that promises to turn the bayfront area currently home to Seaport Village into a world-class destination punctuated by a 500-foot observation tower will need at least another three years before it’s shovel ready.

Tuesday, the Board of Port Commissioners unanimously approved an amended and restated exclusive negotiating agreement with Seaport San Diego developer 1HWY1 to allow the project to secure government approvals. The board’s latest action pushes the agreement’s end date to Oct. 1, 2027, giving the development team an unprecedented 10-year window to take the project from concept to construction.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...ent-approvals/

Three more years before there’s even a possibility of starting construction is just wild. It’ll be a great addition to the city when it finally opens, but it’s hard to even get excited for these projects when the timelines get drawn out seemingly forever like this. At this rate CAHSR will come to San Diego before this tower does.

[unpermitted_variance]

I don't think 3 years sounds unreasonable to get shovels in the ground on this project. Consider that they have only released highly conceptual renderings, nothing very concrete, and they have a ton of approvals to get through. The scale of the project is massive and almost without precedent for modern San Diego, so it's no surprise that this will take some time to review. The real travesty is that they agreed to redevelop the seaport in 2016 and still only have vague conceptual renderings 8 years later.

[Thatguyoverwhere]

Originally Posted by unpermitted_variance

I don't think 3 years sounds unreasonable to get shovels in the ground on this project. Consider that they have only released highly conceptual renderings, nothing very concrete, and they have a ton of approvals to get through. The scale of the project is massive and almost without precedent for modern San Diego, so it's no surprise that this will take some time to review. The real travesty is that they agreed to redevelop the seaport in 2016 and still only have vague conceptual renderings 8 years later.

Yeah, I guess that's more what I'm getting at. We've been hearing about this project and seeing renderings for years now, and apparently we still have years left to wait to see if this will ever start construction.

[SamFlood]

The demolition of the headhouse is finally starting









Our long national nightmare on the Embarcadero is almost over

[mello]

Yes but the signs there say "Coming 2028" for the Park? WTF China would have this banged out in 6 months. What on earth would make this thing take another 4 years?

I'm getting worried about the Gaslamp guys its really looking shabby. Keating hotel closed down for years now. Some other hotel is trying to open in a historic building on 5th and Broadway I saw, we will see about that.

Little Italy is solid but Gaslamp just seems to kind of be dying and Horton Plaza is a joke. Then on waterfront RADD LABS still 0 % leased on the office component. Is it time to rethink downtown or what, will companies ever really come there? That building BOSA owns just west of Horton that he redid has been empty for years. (Wish he had demolished it and built residential towers )

[aekrid]

Originally Posted by mello

Yes but the signs there say "Coming 2028" for the Park? WTF China would have this banged out in 6 months. What on earth would make this thing take another 4 years?

I'm getting worried about the Gaslamp guys its really looking shabby. Keating hotel closed down for years now. Some other hotel is trying to open in a historic building on 5th and Broadway I saw, we will see about that.

Little Italy is solid but Gaslamp just seems to kind of be dying and Horton Plaza is a joke. Then on waterfront RADD LABS still 0 % leased on the office component. Is it time to rethink downtown or what, will companies ever really come there? That building BOSA owns just west of Horton that he redid has been empty for years. (Wish he had demolished it and built residential towers )

Paladion? IIRC Bosa's San Diego office and a co-working spot occupy the building, with the top two floors still for lease.

The center of business gravity has definitely shifted away from the B Street corridor to west of 1st Ave. With all the vacancies and Symphony towers recent sale, we most likely won't see new office construction for a while. Mixed use/residential will have an easier time getting financing for the foreseeable future.

[HurricaneHugo]

What is that building going up near the holiday inn off the 5 downtown?

Well...I dont think its the Holiday Inn anymore

[aekrid]

Originally Posted by HurricaneHugo

What is that building going up near the holiday inn off the 5 downtown?

Well...I dont think its the Holiday Inn anymore

Motel 6 you mean? 1st and Beech, mostly microunits. It's shooting up fast.

[JSW]

Originally Posted by mello

Yes but the signs there say "Coming 2028" for the Park? WTF China would have this banged out in 6 months. What on earth would make this thing take another 4 years?

I'm getting worried about the Gaslamp guys its really looking shabby. Keating hotel closed down for years now. Some other hotel is trying to open in a historic building on 5th and Broadway I saw, we will see about that.

Little Italy is solid but Gaslamp just seems to kind of be dying and Horton Plaza is a joke. Then on waterfront RADD LABS still 0 % leased on the office component. Is it time to rethink downtown or what, will companies ever really come there? That building BOSA owns just west of Horton that he redid has been empty for years. (Wish he had demolished it and built residential towers )

Gaslamp takes some steps forward and some back, but overall as someone who lives close by and has watched it for a few years now- it was definitely looking and feeling worse a year or two ago. Still definitely more than a few sore spots though. Significant residential development will be opening progressively nearby first with 800 broadway (getting very close now), and the other Bosa condos finally above ground at 8th and B. So I think the north end of Gaslamp stands to turnaround with several hundred units bringing residents in.

Horton seems like they're just twiddling their thumbs pretending that the thing is still under contruction until they find tenants. I hope that we at least get that Sprouts that was supposed to move in.

[Streamliner]

Originally Posted by aekrid

Motel 6 you mean? 1st and Beech, mostly microunits. It's shooting up fast.

I think this is it (Sorry, I don't know why this image is so massive):


Twitter source

[Streamliner]

Amid a ‘critical demand for housing,’ 2 of the nation’s tallest dorms open at UC San Diego
Union-Tribune
Link to Article
Gary Robbins
September 18, 2024

Two of the tallest college residence halls in the U.S. opened Wednesday at UC San Diego, which is scrambling to absorb an historic boom in enrollment in a region where affordable off-campus housing is scarce.

Students lined up early to move into Pepper Canyon West, which features one tower that is 23 stories high and another that’s 22 stories. The bigger one is now tied with Palisade UTC Lux apartments as the tallest building in the surrounding area.

UCSD’s new $365 million complex will house 1,310 upper-division transfer students, many of whom would have otherwise had to compete with everyone from engineers to nurses to find a place in busy La Jolla or University City.

UCSD now has four residence halls that range from 16 to 23 stories tall, and it is building individual 18-story and 16-story story towers as part of another campus village. Those last two towers will be part of a complex that will house 2,400 students when it opens next fall.

That won’t be the end of it.

Khosla obtained permission from the UC Board of Regents earlier this year to create a village for 6,000 students, one of the largest such proposals ever made in the U.S. It would likely be composed of five skyscrapers.

[k1052]

A giant amount of housing right on top of a trolly stop really is fantastic to see but also really puts to shame the land use around a lot of the rest of the stops.

[aekrid]

Originally Posted by Streamliner

I think this is it (Sorry, I don't know why this image is so massive):

Yeah that's 1st & Beech

[dirt patch]

Originally Posted by mello

Yes but the signs there say "Coming 2028" for the Park? WTF China would have this banged out in 6 months. What on earth would make this thing take another 4 years?

I'm getting worried about the Gaslamp guys its really looking shabby. Keating hotel closed down for years now. Some other hotel is trying to open in a historic building on 5th and Broadway I saw, we will see about that.

Little Italy is solid but Gaslamp just seems to kind of be dying and Horton Plaza is a joke. Then on waterfront RADD LABS still 0 % leased on the office component. Is it time to rethink downtown or what, will companies ever really come there? That building BOSA owns just west of Horton that he redid has been empty for years. (Wish he had demolished it and built residential towers )

I didn't see it coming. Downtown SD is an epic disaster with failed projects and steep discounted office towers with vacancies. Gaslamp is no longer the place to be seen. Now, rental vacancy is high downtown with landlords offering concessions. The only bright spot and then it's starting to slip: Little Italy. Downtown is really suffering.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by dirt patch

I didn't see it coming. Downtown SD is an epic disaster with failed projects and steep discounted office towers with vacancies. Gaslamp is no longer the place to be seen. Now, rental vacancy is high downtown with landlords offering concessions. The only bright spot and then it's starting to slip: Little Italy. Downtown is really suffering.

Coming from Los Angeles, I spent three days in downtown San Diego this summer. The Padres (who I do not root for, let's be clear) were playing at home on two of those evenings/nights and the Gaslamp was jumping both nights. Really fun. We always have fun staying in downtown San Diego.

[dirt patch]

Originally Posted by craigs

Coming from Los Angeles, I spent three days in downtown San Diego this summer. The Padres (who I do not root for, let's be clear) were playing at home on two of those evenings/nights and the Gaslamp was jumping both nights. Really fun. We always have fun staying in downtown San Diego.

I was there couple of weeks ago. Yep, it's busy during the games, but look carefully. There are more vacant storefronts there than before, and not as busy during non game nights as it used to be.

[FromSD]

Originally Posted by dirt patch

I didn't see it coming. Downtown SD is an epic disaster with failed projects and steep discounted office towers with vacancies. Gaslamp is no longer the place to be seen. Now, rental vacancy is high downtown with landlords offering concessions. The only bright spot and then it's starting to slip: Little Italy. Downtown is really suffering.

As far as downtown office vacancies are concerned, it's not as if San Diego is a special case. DTLA and DT San Francisco are having the same issues. It doesn't help, of course, that San Diego is not a headquarters city, and even before the pandemic, office employment in the downtown area was fairly anemic. The regional economy is focused on defense, high tech and tourism, and the first two typically aren't downtown-centric.

I don't know what the downtown residential vacancy rate is, but landlords offering concessions sounds like good news to me. San Diego's biggest problem has been its housing shortage and the resulting rise in rents. So a surplus of units downtown is a good thing. And its probably temporary anyway, because quite a few units have been added in the last few years. In fact, I'm surprised there is so much high rise residential construction still taking place in Downtown San Diego--much more proportionally than in DTLA and San Francisco.

The resurrection of the Gaslamp District was a great thing for Downtown San Diego, but entertainment districts often go through cycles of popularity/unpopularity. There is more competition for the Gaslamp now from areas like North Park, and the pandemic slump in conventions reduced an important source of customers. Recent well-publicized news of homicides, assaults and police activity doesn't help either. On the other hand, the Gaslamp District, with its architecture and historic significance, is one of the most unique things about Downtown San Diego, so I wouldn't count it out for the long haul.

Downtown San Diego advantages: location on the bay and next to Balboa Park, quickly growing residential population, and the best public transportation access in the region. Downtown San Diego disadvantages: stagnant if not decreasing white collar job opportunities, persistent homeless problems, lackluster retail offerings, and city government buildings that detract from the physical environment--the Civic Center these days looks really shabby.

[dirt patch]

Originally Posted by FromSD

As far as downtown office vacancies are concerned, it's not as if San Diego is a special case. DTLA and DT San Francisco are having the same issues. It doesn't help, of course, that San Diego is not a headquarters city, and even before the pandemic, office employment in the downtown area was fairly anemic. The regional economy is focused on defense, high tech and tourism, and the first two typically aren't downtown-centric.

I don't know what the downtown residential vacancy rate is, but landlords offering concessions sounds like good news to me. San Diego's biggest problem has been its housing shortage and the resulting rise in rents. So a surplus of units downtown is a good thing. And its probably temporary anyway, because quite a few units have been added in the last few years. In fact, I'm surprised there is so much high rise residential construction still taking place in Downtown San Diego--much more proportionally than in DTLA and San Francisco.

The resurrection of the Gaslamp District was a great thing for Downtown San Diego, but entertainment districts often go through cycles of popularity/unpopularity. There is more competition for the Gaslamp now from areas like North Park, and the pandemic slump in conventions reduced an important source of customers. Recent well-publicized news of homicides, assaults and police activity doesn't help either. On the other hand, the Gaslamp District, with its architecture and historic significance, is one of the most unique things about Downtown San Diego, so I wouldn't count it out for the long haul.

Downtown San Diego advantages: location on the bay and next to Balboa Park, quickly growing residential population, and the best public transportation access in the region. Downtown San Diego disadvantages: stagnant if not decreasing white collar job opportunities, persistent homeless problems, lackluster retail offerings, and city government buildings that detract from the physical environment--the Civic Center these days looks really shabby.

True

[k1052]

Originally Posted by FromSD

There is more competition for the Gaslamp now from areas like North Park

North Park, City Heights, University Heights, etc are all bustling now. Liberty Station is packed every time I go there on the weekends. Westfield turning UTC around also likely has had an impact. I think some of the traffic Gaslamp used to get has diffused for the time being.

[dirt patch]

Originally Posted by k1052

North Park, City Heights, University Heights, etc are all bustling now. Liberty Station is packed every time I go there on the weekends. Westfield turning UTC around also likely has had an impact. I think some of the traffic Gaslamp used to get has diffused for the time being.

So true: a lot fewer pretty blondes. In 2000, Gaslamp was packed with so many pretty girls/women everywhere, and now, not so much. Sad.