CCDC OKs $200-Million Koll Center Complex

The Centre City Development Corp. on Friday approved a sweeping proposal for a $200-million mixed-use complex for the dilapidated three-block area bounded by Broadway, Kettner Boulevard and E and State streets.

The project, known as Koll Center, will include twin, 20-story office towers, a 335-room hotel, and commercial and retail outlets, as well as 20 to 30 residential units. It is targeted for completion by 1993.

CCDC members said the center would be a vital link between thriving commercial developments on the waterfront and Horton Plaza, and the key to the revitalization of lower Broadway.

The vote in favor of the project was unanimous, although some members said it should include more residential construction and others were critical of the design of the office towers, arguing that it was too massive for the surrounding area. The neighborhood includes two low-rise residential developments, Park Row and Marina Park.

The city Planning Commission, which is scheduled to begin discussions on the project Feb. 18. Ultimately, the development must be approved by the City Council.

CCDC, the city’s redevelopment arm, also plans to condemn two blocks of Broadway across the street from Koll Center if a private investor cannot be found to purchase and redevelop the parcels. That area, between the YMCA and the County Courthouse, is now a strip of adult entertainment establishments.

“The appearance of the north side of Broadway is a major concern to the developers and to potential tenants in the Koll Center,” said CCDC Executive Director Gerald Trimble. “We’ll use every mechanism possible to convince the private sector to acquire that land, but it is imperative in any case to clean up those two blocks.”

Representatives for the developers, the Koll Co. and Shapell Housing Inc.--Goldrich Kest & Associates, described the Koll Center as San Diego’s first “truly mixed-use development project.” They said they had opened negotiations with three potential office center tenants and with prospective financial backers.

“There is nothing comparable to it now in San Diego,” said Tom Sargent, one of the Koll Center architects. “And it’s in a critical location--midway between the redevelopment on the waterfront and Horton Plaza to the east. In the long term, this should be a very strong retail location.”

Trimble acknowledged criticism that the project should have included more residential construction to help CCDC meet its goal of providing 4,000 housing units in the Marina Redevelopment area. But he repeated statements he made earlier in the week that CCDC’s profits from the development would be used to encourage residential growth elsewhere in the downtown area. CCDC purchased the Koll Center parcels for $6.5 million in 1982, and expects to sell them to the development partnership for between $10.4 million and $12.6 million.

“There has been a lot of discussion by all of us concerning why housing isn’t a major component of this project,” Trimble said. “The driving factor in these negotiations is dollars--the profits we stand to earn from this project will help a great deal in developing housing in the area. I just don’t see a market for high-rise residential development at this site at this time.”