Plan for Waterfront Complex Hits Snag

A proposal by Solar Turbines Inc. to build a $300-million waterfront complex near Lindbergh Field hit a bumpy road Tuesday when the Board of Port Commissioners failed to give the plan conceptual approval and instead referred it to a committee and to the City of San Diego for more study.

Disheartened Solar Turbines executives said later that they are sticking with their project--proposed for a large parcel they now lease from the San Diego Unified Port District--and will meet with whatever agencies are necessary to move the project forward. “This is a concept and we’re willing to work with the port,” Solar Turbines President Glen Burton said.

The plan, which would transform the decades-old manufacturing plant into a 28-acre complex of offices, stores, a hotel, an aquarium, a wharf, a pier and two man-made islands in the bay, was criticized because it had been kept secret from the public until only days before Tuesday’s hearing.

Councilman Ron Roberts, whose district encompasses the property bounded by Harbor Drive, Pacific Highway and Laurel and Grape streets, told the commissioners he was extremely concerned with the process and the attempt by Solar Turbines and its partners to win an exclusive development agreement on property he called among the most valuable in California.

Noting how vaguely the proposal was worded in the agenda--nowhere was there any indication of the magnitude of Solar Turbines’ request--Roberts said: “That underscores the way the thing has proceeded to date . . . to the fullest extent possible to exclude as many people as possible.”

“We shouldn’t be having public hearings after the script has been written,” he said. “This piece of property will have numerous suitors.”

Roberts said he hadn’t planned to make a personal appearance at the meeting, given that the City Council was also holding hearings at the same time, but he said a majority of the City Council--equally concerned about the project--implored him to appear.

“What’s being dangled before you is a very, very sexy scheme,” said Roberts, explaining that the Port District should not abdicate its responsibility for dictating what it would like to see placed on the property simply because Solar Turbines made the first proposal. Once the Port District decides what it wants, the councilman said, it should then put the matter out to competitive bid.

Commissioner Louis Wolfsheimer told his colleagues--who voted 5-1 to defer the matter--that Mayor Maureen O’Connor, who until a few days ago was also unaware of the proposal, had also asked that the Solar Turbines plans be referred to the city for review.

Concern for Employees

Burton, the Solar Turbines president, and other company executives defended their handling of the project, saying one reason they avoided publicizing the plans--which have been in the works for about six months--until the last moment was out of concern for their employees. The company has had several “work force reductions” in the past and didn’t want to raise fears among its 2,100 workers about whether their jobs were at stake because of the project, said one company official.

They also said they had no intention of excluding public comment on the proposal.

Solar Turbines has leased its property from the Port District for 60 years, using the land for a variety of manufacturing activities, ranging from the construction of large industrial gas turbines and caskets to stainless steel kitchen sinks and tuna cans.

Burton said his firm, a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., which makes tractors, is at a “crossroads” with what it wants to do with the property while modernizing its manufacturing operations.

The company, which has five years left on its current lease, wants to move its manufacturing activities to another plant in Kearny Mesa, using money generated from the new mixed-use project to help pay for the relocation. The firm, Burton said, is seeking a new 66-year lease for a development that would set “a new world standard in urban design.”

Main Parts of Complex

As now envisioned, the main parts of the complex, called Harbor Place, would include:

--- Two 125,000-square-foot office buildings for Solar Turbines’ new world headquarters, with 2,000 employees.

--- A 450-room, 12- to 13-story hotel.

--- A separate 75,000-square-foot retail wharf with stores and restaurants, and a 45,000-square-foot recreation pier with decks, stores and docking facilities.

--- A 225-slip marina.

--- The Pacific Rim Pavilions, a 100,000-square-foot international trade and business center.

--- An area called Lindbergh Gardens, because the site is where the original Spirit of St. Louis airplane was built. The gardens would contain a greenhouse, flower market, sculpture garden and bike paths. The developers said half of the development would be devoted to public open space.

--- Parking for more than 4,000 cars.

--- A major movie theater complex with as many as 12 screens.

Other elements of the plan include narrowing Harbor Drive to three lanes and making it one-way south of Laurel Street. The idea is to make the waterfront wider and make it more of a park. As compensation, the developers would widen Pacific Highway and Laurel. Also proposed is the construction of an oceanarium and research center.

While full construction of the project would take eight to 10 years, company officials said they could begin construction on some segments as early as next year, and that they would develop the land in a sequence from the south to the north.

Leader of Design Team

Leading the design team is the architectural firm of Benjamin Thompson & Associates, an internationally known company that has done several accomplished waterfront developments such as Faneuil Hall in Boston, Harbor Place in Baltimore and the renovation of Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco.

At one point, Thompson, who described the “dream” behind the design of the low-level complex, employed the talents of singer Willie Nelson to emphasize his point. The audience was shown a slide show accompanied by a recording of Nelson singing “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”

The local architect involved in the project is the firm of Martinez-Wong & Associates. Company President Joe Martinez said the idea behind Harbor Center is to tie it into Balboa Park, which is several blocks uphill and a freeway removed from the property.

He said that, although Lindbergh Field is next to the property, the normal departure of jets is away from the site, and that a noise study showed that in the vicinity of Harbor Drive, there was more noise generated from passing traffic than from the airport.

Martinez also said construction of the aquarium would be along Laurel Street, offering a buffer to jet noise. Most of Solar Turbines’ buildings are two to three stories high, Martinez explained, and the Harbor Center project would keep that same height line with the exception of the hotel.

Also involved in the design is Design Development Resources of New York. Other parts of Solar Turbines’ development team include John Burham & Co. and Old Stone Development Corp.