2nd Builder in Contest for Downtown Project
A week ago, Seaport Manfred Co. Inc. divulged plans to build a 25-story, 750-room hotel and a high-rise 150-unit apartment building on two downtown San Diego blocks. On Friday, in a surprising announcement, another developer stepped forward and said he wanted to do the same thing on the same property.
As a result, the Centre City Development Corp., the government agency in charge of downtown redevelopment, gave both developers--in what has suddenly turned into a competition--until June 5 to come up with more definitive plans and concepts.
That should be easy for Seaport Manfred, which not only has a strong concept but has already put together a development team, lined up tentative financing for its $116 million project and is essentially ready to enter into formal negotiations with CCDC.
In contrast, the newcomers, led by James Clark, an orthopedic surgeon from La Jolla, acknowledge they will need every minute of that time to put some sinew into their fledgling proposal.
‘In Beginning Stages’
Clark said that while he had been considering some type of development in the two-block area bounded by 1st Avenue, Front Street, Martin Luther King Way and the railroad tracks next to Harbor Drive, it wasn’t until he learned about Seaport Manfred’s plans on March 13 that he decided to “accelerate our plans.”
As a consequence, Clark said, “We’re just in the beginning stages right now.”
As much as CCDC might welcome the competition, the agency is also under a legal requirement giving property owners in renewal areas first shot at carrying out development proposals.
Clark meets that requirement because his family owns 10,000 square feet of property--or about a quarter--of the most southern of the two blocks, located between Island Avenue and the railroad tracks. The rest of the block is owned by Graybar Electric Co., a national firm which Clark says has agreed to join him in building a mixed-use hotel and apartment complex.
Rey Schoenbauer, a Graybar official in Los Angeles who has been involved with Clark in the creation of a development plan, was not available for comment.
The 60,000-square-foot northern block is owned by the Ice Block partnership, which has formed a venture with Seaport Manfred.
The winner of the competition to develop the project could eventually gain access to the other’s property by the use of CCDC’s condemnation power, if necessary.
Ostensibly, one resolution would seem to be to let each developer move forward on their own land. But CCDC officials say that for “the public purpose” of good planning, both blocks have to be linked in a joint, integrated development.
The area, regarded as a key entrance to downtown and Horton Plaza from the convention center, is slated for significant changes, including taking 1st Avenue and Front Street across the railroad tracks to Harbor Drive, as well as being the site of a proposed new bayside trolley station and a pedestrian bridge.
A week ago, when Seaport Manfred made its announcement, CCDC Executive Vice President Gerald Trimble, who knew of Clark’s plans, praised the Seaport Manfred plan as “extraordinary.” Of particular interest to CCDC is that Seaport Manfred’s proposal is free of any public subsidy. CCDC has been forced, in most cases, to provide a subsidy to new housing projects in its redevelopment area.
On Friday, after Clark told the CCDC board of directors of his plans, a facetious Trimble said to reporters, “Redevelopment is like the biblical plagues . . . it’s the same thing over and over again . . . gnats, pests and boils.”
CCDC, Trimble said, will provide both developers with the agency’s design parameters for the area and then let them respond with a proposal. “There can only be one winner,” he said.
Seaport Manfred, a firm composed of the principals who own Seaport Village plus Roger Manfred, a hotel developer, had just finished making an informal presentation to the CCDC board when Clark told them of his intentions.
Afterward, Clark and his attorney, Chris Neils--who also represents well-known bayfront developer Doug Manchester--said they had talked to Seaport Manfred officials, principally Lee Stein, its executive vice president, about the possibility of a joint venture.
But after several meetings, “we weren’t able to come together on a common idea,” said Neils, who declined to elaborate on the discussions.
Clark said his development experience includes restaurants and small commercial construction. Advising him, he noted, is Bernard Fipp, a former top official for the Koll Co. in San Diego. Clark said his family, under the name Gingling, has owned its portion of the block since about 1984.
“I’m worried it’s not enough time,” Clark said of the approximately 60 days he has to put a plan together.
CCDC board member Jan Anton told reporters that the agency is not looking for detailed plans by June 5. “What we’re asking for is a concept,” Anton said. “You have a 10,000-square-feet owner and a 60,000-square-foot owner . . . so (the competition) will be interesting.”
