Great American Plans Headquarters in Starboard’s Twin Towers Project
Great American First Savings Bank has signed a preliminary agreement to move its headquarters to the twin-tower, $200-million Starboard Station office-hotel-retail project being planned on a two-block site near the Santa Fe Depot.
The agreement, which Great American signed with San Diego-based Starboard Development, signals the end of the S&L;’s efforts to construct a 30-story headquarters building in a joint venture with Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corp. at the corner of Broadway and Pacific Highway.
Great American and Santa Fe announced a tentative agreement in May, 1987, but were unable to finalize the joint venture for a variety of reasons, sources said. The two sides could not agree on design or project costs, and Santa Fe has been distracted from its development efforts over the last year as it fended off two major takeover attempts, the sources said.
Assuming Great American and Starboard execute a definitive agreement over the next 30 days, the S&L; will occupy 120,000 square feet in the 1-million-square-foot project when it is completed in late 1991 or early 1992. Great American will occupy the southernmost tower, to be called Great American Plaza, rising 30 stories and totaling 500,000 square feet.
The north tower, to be called Starboard Station, will be about 26 stories high and will include a 276-room Guest Quarters hotel to be operated by Beacon Hotel Corp. of Boston, Starboard said Wednesday.
The project will occupy two blocks bordered by Broadway, Kettner Boulevard, India and B streets. One of the project’s two towers will include a transit station for the new Bayside trolley line, which will run through the property.
Starboard is seeking permission from the city to use C Street between Kettner Boulevard and India Street for a pedestrian walkway separating the two towers.
Great American, which is the nation’s seventh largest S&L; with $15.2 billion in assets, will be an equity partner in the project and may possibly provide its financing as well, Starboard President Bradford Saunders said Wednesday. Construction on the project is to begin next spring, he added.
In a prepared statement released Wednesday, Great American did not give any reason for terminating talks with Santa Fe. Great American President Marc Sandstrom, who has overseen negotiations with Santa Fe, was not available for comment.
Santa Fe spokeswoman Susan Saltzer in San Francisco said only that the two parties had not been able to come to “mutually satisfactory terms.” A source said Santa Fe offered to sell Great American the 1.5-acre parcel for the proposed building but that the S&L; considered the price too high.
Saltzer said Santa Fe has no immediate development plans for the property, which is part of a 17-acre parcel next to the depot. Santa Fe has received approval to build a total of 4.5 million square feet of hotel, office and retail space there over the next two decades.
Saunders said the Starboard Station project design is going to be “reconfigured” to allow for the Bayside trolley line to run through the north tower, not the south tower as originally planned.
With 1.3 million square feet of office space completed or under construction to date, Starboard specializes in developments for public entities. The 9-year-old company built the $43.7-million San Diego Police Department headquarters and has started construction on a $43.6-million MTS Tower, the new 10-story home of the Metropolitan Transit Development Board and San Diego Trolley management.
