San Diego

San Diego redevelopment officials approved a $115-million hotel and office high-rise project Friday on lower Broadway, near the waterfront.

The project--consisting of glass hexagons and an eight-story movable atrium separating the offices and the hotel--includes a 30-story 375,000-square-foot office building and a 497-room, 29-story hotel.

Developers of the privately financed project are San Diego builder Sandor Shapery and Emerald Management Co., a Hawaii-based company that builds and operates hotels.

The agreement, approved unanimously by the directors of the Centre City Development Corp., will come before the City Council on Dec. 9. The massive project would occupy a block bounded by Broadway and State, Columbia and C streets, now home to several bars and tattoo parlors.

Although the developers own or control most of the property on the block, CCDC will use its power, including condemnation, if necessary, to acquire the saloons and tattoo businesses facing Broadway that the developers have been unable to buy.

Shapery and Yoshio Tanaka, president of Emerald Management, said Friday that they have yet to secure a $100-million loan needed to build the project but are negotiating with several banks. According to their timetable, construction is scheduled to begin next summer, with completion set for about the spring of 1989.