San Diego Project Under Way : Former Brickyard to Become Commercial Center
Suppose, for a minute, that you are a major commercial developer and are constructing a mixed-use project on the site of an old brick and concrete block plant in San Diego’s Mission Valley.
You are seeking a name for the project’s three-level retail complex--with restaurants and shops, a six-screen movie theater and 1,900 parking spaces. The envelope, please, for the name; yes, perfect! The Brickyard.
It may not be the most original or exciting name, but R. E. Hazard Contracting Co., the developer with Trammell Crow Co., hasn’t survived for 60 years by being a slow learner. And Dallas-based Trammell Crow is widely perceived to be one of the best developers in the nation.
The $100-million first phase of the Hazard Center at the southeast corner of California 163 and Friars Road will also include a business-oriented 275-room hotel at one end and a 15-story brick, granite and glass office tower at the other end, connected by the 142,000-square-foot retail center.
Highway Construction
The site of the 42-acre, three-phase project--across the freeway from the Fashion Valley shopping complex--was for many years the Hazard firm’s brick and concrete block plant. The company, founded in 1926 by the late R. E. (Pappy) Hazard Sr., has built more than $500 million worth of highways in San Diego County.
According to Steve Williams, partner in charge for Trammell Crow Co., the complex will be the “first true mixed-use project in Mission Valley.” Work is under way on clearing the site, with construction scheduled to begin in the fall, he added.
Calling it a “festival marketplace,” project architect Geoff Reeslund of SGPA Planning & Architecture, said that the retail complex will feature design elements such as skylighted pavilions, metal roofs, Tivoli lights and--naturally--”lots of brick.”
Richard C. Niblack, partner in the architectural and planning firm, said that despite the success of downtown San Diego and the Golden Triangle area east of La Jolla, Mission Valley is still worthy of a prestige office building.
“Trammell Crow’s idea is that Mission Valley needs more quality office buildings like the one in Hazard Center,” Niblack said. Before joining SGPA, which has offices in San Diego and San Francisco, Niblack was a partner with the Luckman Partnership in Los Angeles.
“The third phase will incorporate attached housing, either apartments or condominiums,” he added.
