Inside the Largest Office Build in the West

Chesnut Properties has broken ground on what will become the largest office development on the West Coast. Millennia Office is a three-campus office project totaling 1.4 million square feet in the San Diego submarket of Chula Vista. All outfitted with the most cutting-edge technology, the three campuses include the THINK Campus, two buildings totaling 324,000 square feet; DISCOVER Campus, one building totaling 400,000 square feet; and the INVENT Campus, a four-building property totaling 700,000 square feet. All three campuses have the potential for expansion into what could become a 3 million-square-foot development. JLL is handling the leasing for the property, and will target large, national tech companies, which have a growing presence in the San Diego market, as well as office, medical or education tenants as well. To find out more about the project, we sat down with Lee Chesnut, principal and founder of Chesnut Properties, for an exclusive interview.

GlobeSt.com: What is your vision for the project?

Lee Chesnut: The vision I have for Millenia Office started when I first saw the land three years ago. As I walked on the site and saw the surrounding environment, infrastructure and housing all in place, I had this gut feeling that this was the next place to take off in San Diego for business. The land at Millenia has massive entitlements in place, and the leaders of the community have done all the work to set this up for success. I am essentially the last piece of the puzzle in making this new business region come to life. With that said, I’ve taken the huge entitlements and looked at a way to maximize the square footage we can offer here to create a true mega campus opportunity on these three lots. Our three campuses are named Think, Discover, and Invent and, as designed, they total about 1.4 million square feet. We chose to name the campuses in a way that represents the type of collaborative environment we hope to cultivate. Think is being marketed towards collaborative higher education, Discover to powerful research and healthcare, and Invent towards technology. These campuses have been designed with our team at Gensler to be at the highest caliber of work environments possible that contribute to your success as a business and a person. We are targeting a LEED platinum rating across the campuses and also a WELL Building gold certification, which focuses on human health and wellbeing.