Rejection of Tower Could Send Message

Four months have passed since the Centre City Development Corp. approved the 38-story Huntington luxury condominium project on lower Broadway, against the advice of several of its own paid experts.

Most everyone liked its design, a well-detailed mix of rich materials and tasteful references to classical architecture. The stepped-back tower was well-received. But the economic consultants and urban design experts said it was too bulky and tall, and that its 198 luxury condominiums might take six years to sell instead of the three predicted by its developers, making it financially unfeasible.

On Tuesday, the San Diego City Council will consider the project, and appears likely to reverse the decision of its own redevelopment agency. It is possible that the council will either send the project back to CCDC in search of a new set of proposals, or award the development to a smaller, more appropriately scaled apartment high-rise that ran a close second at the CCDC.

A rejection of the condo tower would be a landmark move, sending a message to developers that the city is ready to stick more firmly to more moderate development for select areas of downtown San Diego. To approve the Huntington, the CCDC had to amend a redevelopment plan that allowed a building of only half the size.

A Voice at City Hall

A council decision against the Huntington could also be a sign that City Architect Mike Stepner, appointed to this new, potentially influential city post in September, 1988, is starting to have a voice at City Hall. Such a vote would send a message to the CCDC that the council wants sensitive, appropriately scaled buildings that fit the context of lower Broadway’s south side.

Players are starting to take positions for what promises to be an action-packed council session. According to one insider, several council votes are lined up against the Koll-Davidson proposal. These include Mayor Maureen O’Connor’s and Councilman Bob Filner’s.

The Huntington was among three projects originally submitted to the CCDC.

The Koll Co., a large commercial developer, and Davidson Communities, a San Diego home builder, teamed up on the Huntington. Designed by Lorimer-Case Architects, the designers of several of Davidson’s award-winning tracts (but little in the way of high-rises), the Huntington would feature luxury homes ranging in price from $300,000 to at least $1 million.

Perhaps the dark horse candidate is developer A. J. Lirot’s 900 State, a 30-story apartment tower designed by Naegle & Associates, another leading San Diego tract housing architect. Already, some people are wondering why the CCDC overlooked Lirot’s project. Not only is it 100 feet lower, and narrower at the top, but its 287 rental apartments, starting at $600 a month, are thought by many to be a more necessary form of new downtown housing than luxury condos.

Lirot would pay the city $3.2 million up front for the site, contrasted with $2 million offered by Koll-Davidson.

As a bonus, the Lirot project is the only one of the three with a child-care center, for use by both its residents and downtown workers.

Development Success

In terms of financial capacity, Koll and Davidson are both known for their development successes, and they would have financial backing from Coscan Development Corp., a large, reputable Canadian firm.

Lirot has built significant projects in several U. S. cities, including the Opera Plaza luxury condominiums in downtown San Francisco and Johns Manville’s headquarters building in Denver. He would team up with giant commercial developer Trammell Crow as equal equity partners.

The third proposal, a 16-story hotel, has never been seriously considered. It was submitted by developer Sandor Shapery, a partner in the Emerald Shapery Center, a high-rise hotel-office-retail complex rising just across Broadway from the site in question. The submission was an attempt to assure that the Emerald Shapery Center’s waterfront views wouldn’t be blocked.

At the ground breaking for the Emerald Shapery Center, O’Connor was heard reassuring its Japanese financiers from Tokyu Corp. that their project’s views weren’t in danger.

“She made a commitment to the Japanese, and she intends to honor that commitment,” said Paul Downey, her press secretary.

Shapery, an attorney as well as a developer, has been busy putting together a case against the Huntington with the help of local land-use attorney James Milch. And it appears they have some ammunition.

A look through their research in favor of something smaller than the Huntington makes you wonder why the city bothers preparing planning documents in the first place. The Huntington appears to violate the intent of several city guidelines governing height, scale and view corridors.

And why pay seasoned urban design experts like Max Schmidt, the CCDC’s urban design expert, and Stepner, and then ignore their recommendations?

Too Tall and Bulky

Stepner and Schmidt have both let it be known that they feel the Koll-Davidson project is too tall and bulky for its setting. It would tower over the 6-story Hotel San Diego to the east, the 13-story Columbia Tower seniors housing project to the south and Koll’s recently completed 20-story office tower to the west.

Planners measure the size of high-rises according to floor area ratio (FAR), which is the ratio between a building’s total floor area and the size of the site. Before the CCDC’s amendment to the redevelopment plan governing the State and Broadway site, a building of FAR 9 would have been allowed on the 30,000-square-foot parcel. Although the FAR 9 limit would have allowed a building of 270,000 square feet on this site, the Koll-Davidson building, at 594,000 square feet, has an FAR of nearly 20. By comparison, the Lirot project, at 382,000 square feet, has an FAR of about 13.

The Koll company argued that a smaller condo tower would not be profitable, and the Huntington was narrowly approved; the CCDC board vote was 4 to 3.

Lirot believes original awkward renderings of his project hurt his chances. New versions reveal the building to be of graceful proportions. Large bays, which would provide north and south views from apartments high on the east side of the building, no longer make it appear top heavy. The tallest of three towers would be finished with a simple, copper roof. The building’s profile steps up sensitively from the Hotel San Diego, to a mid-rise tower, to its 400-foot tallest tower.

As Stepner has noted, the design needs clarification at the street level. The main entrance is a porte cochere on State Street. There would be retail uses, possibly a restaurant, along Broadway. The project needs to make a stronger gesture to this key downtown street than it does in current drawings.

Although Shapery would prefer that a building smaller than Lirot’s be built across from his project, he finds the project acceptable. By contrast, city approval of the Huntington would probably guarantee legal action on behalf of the Emerald Shapery Center against the city.

The CCDC will lose credibility if this project is sent back in search of a whole new set of proposals. Developers may be less willing to invest time and money in competing for projects (Lirot says he’s already spent $160,000.)

Lirot’s proposal, with its appropriate scale, fresh design and rental apartments, instead of luxury condos, would be a logical choice.