Santa Fe Plans 28-Story Office Tower Near Depot

One of downtown San Diego’s most-awaited development projects is ready to begin.

Santa Fe Pacific Realty Corp., downtown’s largest private landowner, has unveiled plans for a 28-story office building at the foot of Broadway, across from the railroad depot and one block from the harbor.

Construction of the $110-million building, which would include 440,000 square feet of office space, seven levels of parking (two of them underground) and ground-floor retail space, is expected to begin late this year and be completed in late 1992.

The structure marks the first high-rise development by Santa Fe under an agreement with the city that would allow a $1-billion project spread over 17 acres. The entire project would include 3 million square feet of office space, 1,200 hotel rooms, 200,000 square feet of retail space and 4,500 parking spaces, all centered around the historic depot.

In addition, Santa Fe has proposed paying for and building a transit center to serve Amtrak, the expected Old Town trolley extension and a new Oceanside-to-San Diego commuter rail service.

News of Santa Fe’s proposed high-rise, on a block now occupied by a parking lot and bounded by Broadway, Pacific Coast Highway, the railroad tracks and E Street, surfaced Friday when the Centre City Development Corp.--the agency in charge of downtown redevelopment--placed the item on the agenda for a downtown residents’ advisory committee meeting Thursday.

CCDC spokeswoman Suzanne Strassburger said the agency’s board of directors is scheduled to review Santa Fe’s high-rise proposal March 16. She said the proposal is still being discussed by Santa Fe and CCDC officials, a point emphasized by Santa Fe’s San Diego project manager, Bryan Johnson.

Johnson said he wanted to be cautious about discussing the project’s details, explaining that he was meeting with a subcommittee of CCDC directors and officials late Friday afternoon and wanted to get their reactions.

Santa Fe has a model of the building, but renderings haven’t been submitted to CCDC yet. Drawings should be ready by next week’s residents’ meeting. Johnson said Santa Fe is not bound by a comprehensive urban design plan now nearing completion by a group headed by developer Ernest Hahn, but the proposed high-rise is designed as closely as possible to meet those impending guidelines.

As described by Johnson, the building would be set back from the street so that it won’t dominate a public plaza at the foot of Broadway. On top of two floors of underground parking would be a 65-foot-high base that would include ground-floor retail space, a lobby and five floors of parking. On top of that and set back even further would be the 22-story office tower.

The building’s designers, HOK Architects of Los Angeles, have topped the tower with a four-sided pitched roof with a spire, Johnson said.

When completed, the high-rise will add to the march of new office buildings down Broadway to the bay.

The proposed building is in the Columbia Redevelopment Area controlled by CCDC. Johnson said, however, that the company is not seeking a government subsidy and that the tower will be privately financed.

As recently as last year, Santa Fe had been harshly criticized by some public officials, such as Councilman Ron Roberts, for first proposing massive buildings along the waterfront that would have cut off bay views. Santa Fe reduced the square footage allowed under its development agreement with the city and redesigned its buildings. Roberts was unavailable for comment.

CCDC spokeswoman Strassburger said agency officials “are just beginning to meet internally about this” proposal.

Santa Fe owns some of the most valuable land downtown, a result of property obtained for the railroad right of way. In 1983, the city and Santa Fe approved a 25-year development agreement for the 17 acres, parts of which have been revised. Although it was clear that the company would some day formally present a proposal, it wasn’t until Friday that one surfaced.

That is not to say, though, that Santa Fe has not been busy on other company-owned land that is not part of the 17 acres around the depot.

Sante Fe built the $40-million, 13-story Embassy Suites hotel at Pacific Coast Highway and Harbor Drive, finished in 1988. And, last year, Santa Fe won approval to build its first residential project downtown, a nearly 400-unit apartment complex across from the hotel and bounded by G and F streets, Pacific Coast Highway and the railroad tracks. The $25-million apartment building, spread over two blocks, is to be built in conjunction with JMB Realty. Work on the project is to begin this summer.

CCDC approved both the hotel and the apartment house.