CCDC Gives Twin Towers Tentative OK
After two changes in partnership, three building designs, the replacement of the city’s negotiator and three years of all-purpose wrangling, developers were given a tentative go-ahead by the CCDC to build twin 37-story residential towers downtown in the Marina redevelopment area.
The Centre City Development Corp, the city’s redevelopment arm, voted 5 to 2 Friday to recommend that the City Council approve its agreement with Harbor Drive Venture, a group of developers led by Neil Senturia of Los Angeles, that is seeking to build the modern residential high-rises 120 feet apart on a triangular tract between 3rd and 1st avenues and J Street and the railroad tracks.
The venture, successively known as Century Towers, The Metropolis and One Harbor Drive, “is pioneering in terms of the neighboring sites, and it’s also pioneering in terms of the quality of the product,” said CCDC acting Executive Vice President Pamela Hamilton, who finished working out the arrangement after the departure of her predecessor, Gerald Trimble.
$50-Million Project
Senturia said he hopes to start construction by next spring on the slender, $50-million towers, which will include 298 residential units, five levels of parking and a ground floor of retail stores. Construction would be completed in 1990.
He said the partnership is in the process of getting financing and a general contractor.
The deal, which goes before the council and its Redevelopment Agency on Sept. 6, would cost the CCDC about $1.7 million for the purchase and discounted resale of about two-thirds of the land, utility improvements and other fees.
In return for the subsidy, the closing of a block of 2nd Avenue and four ordinance waivers, including the area’s height limitations, the developers have substantially changed the look of the buildings and agreed to maintain a public-access park on the site, next to a city-owned park.
During negotiations, the developers increased the designed space separating the towers to about 120 feet, increased their height, decreased their width, and limited the buildings’ density to three units per floor.
$5,000 for Each Unit
In addition to immediate payments on the land, the city would get $5,000 when each unit is sold, or $5,000 for each unit at the end of 10 years, adjusted for inflation.
“We have a very different project now than we had in the beginning. Before it was a 60,000-square-foot site, with the city and the developer each buying 30,000 and the city giving a $1.5-million subsidy. Now it’s grown into 87,000 square feet, with four variances and 30 fewer units,” said CCDC treasurer and board member Janay Kruger, who opposed the deal.
“We’re giving more subsidy, and we should be giving less: The convention center is going up, and the market has changed,” she said.
Kruger and fellow board member Patrick Kruer voted against the measure, arguing that it would tie up too much of CCDC’s funding.
But attorney Louis Wolfsheimer, who represents the partnership, said: “My client feels he got beaten up pretty badly” during the negotiations. “This is the lowest subsidy ever given to a residential development downtown, and they’re going to be collecting more than $500,000 in taxes on the place each year.”
‘Full of Derelicts, Refuse’
“That area is full of derelicts, full of refuse. (Senturia) is really a visionary. This will be one of the most stunning buildings in California, mark my words,” Wolfsheimer said.
In another action Friday, the CCDC moved to recommend that the city work to acquire a block of land from the Santa Fe railroad for use by the Port Authority to accommodate hotel development and the realignment of Market Street and Harbor Drive.
The CCDC also voted to extend by 120 days its negotiations with Starboard Development Corp. over Starboard’s proposed mixed-use project in a two-block section of the Columbia redevelopment area bounded by Broadway, Kettner Boulevard, B Street and India Street.
Starboard, which is in a joint venture with Great American Development Co., would need two changes in the area’s redevelopment plan, including the height restriction, to go ahead with the project.
The development would include a 275-room Guest Quarters Hotel, about 600,000 square feet of office space in a 500-foot tower, 40,000 square feet of retail and other space, and below-grade parking.
