CCDC OKs $125-Million Project Near Waterfront
The Centre City Development Corp. on Friday approved plans for a $125-million high-rise hotel and residential complex across from the new convention center in San Diego’s developing waterfront area.
The Roger Morris Plaza, on Harbor Drive between 1st Avenue and Front Street, would contain a 49-story domed building that, at 488 feet, would be among the tallest in the city. The project will go before the City Council on June 20.
“We think this is a dynamic project,” said Gerald Brewer, principal architect on the project.
Brewer compared the plaza to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis in terms of becoming a community focal point. “This is a design that all of us in the community can share in,” he said.
Developer Roger Manfred and partner Morris B. Taubman contributed their first names to the complex, which is scheduled to be completed in 1992. Manfred and Taubman are owners of Seaport Manfred Co. Inc., which runs Seaport Village and is the general partner in Roger Morris Plaza Ltd.
The hotel, which would have 750 rooms, will be topped by a 150-unit leased residential complex. The site is in San Diego’s Marina Redevelopment Project area, which is designated for hotel-residential mixed-use development.
The CCDC, in a 5-0 vote with two members absent, granted exemptions to the area’s height requirements in exchange for developers increasing public space and building underground parking. Although the height requirements under the ordinance for the site had been set at 250 feet, exemptions are allowed up to 500 feet.
No opposition to the project was voiced at the public hearing held by the CCDC, the city’s redevelopment arm.
A linear park, including a 200-foot-wide civic pond, trees and fountains, is included in the design, along with more than 20,000 square feet of public space.
As part of the development, the city would turn over a segment of Island Avenue between 1st Avenue and Front Street to be converted into a circular courtyard that would serve as the entrance to the plaza. Across the courtyard from the hotel would be a five-story pavilion containing banquet and meeting rooms.
The cost of the pond and any public improvements would be paid by the developers. Roger Morris Plaza Ltd. would be responsible for maintaining the pond and public park area for 30 years.
Manfred said the project is an example of “private interests working with the public to come up with the right combination.”
More than 300 people would be employed at the hotel, which would occupy the first 28 floors, Manfred said. The upper units, which have been designated condominiums, would be situated in the upper 18 floors and will be leased “in the medium-price range” at about $1,000 to $1,200 a month, developers said. An underground parking garage would contain space for 700 cars.
The tallest building in San Diego is 34-story Symphony Towers on B Street, which tops out at 499 feet. The Great American Plaza building on West Broadway, now under construction, will have 33 floors and be 500 feet high. However, those two structures are office buildings, which are required to have at least 2 additional feet between floors for ducts.
