Downtown Retail, Housing Project Gets Design OK
Michael Ribant says two words explain his decision to develop a 24-unit apartment building at 3rd Avenue and Market Street in downtown San Diego--”Horton Plaza.”
Ribant won approval Friday from the Centre City Development Corporation for the basic design of his $2-million building, the first housing in the Marina Redevelopment Project slated for construction without direct public subsidies.
The stockbroker said he was confident the opening of the shopping and entertainment center would make the difference in a downtown that, so far, has not drawn urban dwellers in the numbers planners had hoped for.
“My gamble compared to Hahn’s is minuscule,” Ribant said, refering to Ernest Hahn, the developer of $170-million Horton Plaza. “I’m betting his project will go.”
Ribant expects to break ground on the four-story structure in December or January, with occupancy scheduled for late next year. The ground level is reserved for retail uses; the stories above will contain one- and two-bedroom apartments expected to rent for $575 to $775 monthly.
Residential options in redeveloping portions of downtown so far have ranged from the opulent Meridian condominium tower to the suburban-style Marina Park and Park Row town houses to lower-cost senior citizen housing complexes.
Three other residential projects, each adding between 80 and 192 units to the downtown housing stock, are planned within four blocks of Ribant’s proposed building. What makes Ribant’s project notable, development officials said, is its small scale, decidedly more residential than monolithic in character.
“We’re delighted that scale building is being built adjacent to (the) Gaslamp (Quarter), because it doesn’t overshadow the district and blends nicely with it,” said Art Skolnik, executive director of the Gaslamp Quarter Council.
Ribant said smaller developments such as his, not immense Meridian-style projects, are the future of downtown living in San Diego. “I don’t think you can have too many of those types in the city,” he said of the 27-story Meridian condominium tower, where the most expensive models cost upwards of $1.4 million. “It involves too much risk.”
However, Gerald Trimble, executive vice president of Centre City and one of the architects of downtown’s revival, said he doubted that Ribant had discovered the prescription for a downtown housing boom. Because of the high cost of downtown property, Trimble said it was unlikely that middle-income housing could be successful without public subsidies.
“Sure, Horton Plaza is going to stimulate the demand for housing,” he said Friday. “But it’s never going to change basic economics.” It remains to be seen, he said, if Ribant’s project can be a financial success.
Ribant said he was exploring tax-exempt financing for the project with the San Diego Housing Commission, which would reduce the long-term debt on the development and boost its economic viability. He declined to name the general partner for the project and said a general contractor had not been selected.
