Mission Valley Projects Rising From the Pits
Sixty-one years ago, when Roscoe Hazard bought a 45-acre piece of land in Mission Valley for an asphalt plant, about the only other logical use for the property was as a dairy farm.
Times have changed, of course, and Mission Valley is now a commercial hub and not the rural marshland it was as recently as two decades ago. And R.E. Hazard Contracting Co.’s 45-acre property has been rechristened Hazard Center and planned for high-rise office, hotel and residential development valued at $300 million.
A joint venture with Trammell Crow Co., Hazard Center is just one of several Mission Valley projects scheduled for former “gravel pits” that are in the process of being converted from construction and industrial uses to upscale developments. As planned, the projects will add thousands of hotel rooms and millions of square feet of office space to Mission Valley’s already bulging inventory of buildings.
25% Vacancy Rate
Construction on several of the office buildings planned has begun despite Mission Valley’s current office vacancy rate of 25%, according to a Coldwell Banker survey, a rate that makes it a soft office market.
On the southeastern quadrant of California 163 and Friars Road, the Hazard property will ultimately include three 15-story office towers totaling 850,000 square feet of space, a 300-room Red Lion Hotel and a parking garage for 2,000 cars. Construction has begun on the first phase, which will include one of the office towers and the hotel.
The project will also include a 150,000-square-foot retail center featuring a seven-screen movie theater.
“It’s been a lot of hard work” getting the project off the ground, said Bruce Hazard, Roscoe’s son and president of R.E. Hazard Contracting. “I’m happy to see the property going in this direction because it’s logical.” He added that Hazard has gotten out of manufacturing and mining business, while maintaining a contracting operation based on Miramar Road.
Other Mission Valley projects involving former gravel, sand and asphalt production sites include:
- Rio Vista, a 140-acre project of CalMat Properties, a subsidiary of CalMat Co., the Los Angeles-based concrete and building materials producer. Bounded by Interstate 805 to the east, Friars to the north and the San Diego River to the south, the property will someday see the construction of 1.75 million square feet of office space, 1,400 residential units and 1,200 hotel rooms.
Nearing completion is Rio Vista’s first phase of construction: a 200,000-square-foot office tower in a joint venture with Oliver McMillan developers of San Diego, and a 350-room Marriott Hotel in a joint venture with Interstate Hotels of Pittsburgh, said Bill Rodewald, a leasing agent with Grubb & Ellis.
- Mission City, a 240-acre parcel owned by H.G. Fenton Material Co., a gravel and sand producer based in San Diego. The property, immediatedly west of San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, straddles Friars to the north and is bounded by San Diego River to the south. The land will someday be the site of 4,100 multifamily residential units, nearly 2 million square feet of offices, a 500-room hotel and 115,000 square feet of retail buildings.
Construction on the first phase of Mission City is scheduled to begin in early 1990, said Vince Botticelli, a Grubb & Ellis leasing agent representing the property. Fenton, one of Mission Valley’s largest landowners, also owns a 52-acre parcel on the northern rim of Mission Valley, north of Friars and east of California 163, destined for industrial buildings.
StoneCrest, a 300-acre strip of land west of Interstate 15 bounded on the north by Aero Drive and stretching south nearly to Friars. The site is being developed jointly by Daley Corp., general contractors, which has owned the site since 1902, the Hooberman Group real estate developers, and Old Stone Bank of Rhode Island.
The property has been approved for 2.5 million square feet of office space, 1.2 million square feet of research-and-development buildings, plus a 400-room hotel and retail space.
The first phase of the project will include four buildings totaling 245,000 square feet, StoneCrest Vice President Michael Kiss said. Daley, a road contractor, has operated the site as a quarry for stone aggregate since 1926. Daley has recently moved much of its mining to Jamul.
In the works for more than a decade, the projects fronting the San Diego River became environmentally feasible only after the First San Diego River Improvement Project (FSDRIP) was approved by the city in 1982.
