Largest West Coast Waterfront Project Gains Approval

The City of Chula Vista and The Port of San Diego are moving forward with a plan to redevelop the 553-acre Chula Vista bay front, the largest waterfront redevelopment project on the West Coast. The two organizations approved a public-private partnership, which will begin with the Chula Vista Bayfront resort hotel, totaling 1,600 rooms, and a 415,000-square-foot convention center project on San Diego Bay with 275,000 usable square feet of convention and meeting space. The total project will cost $1.13 billion.

“The Chula Vista Bayfront project represents one of the last truly significant large-scale waterfront development opportunities in Southern California,” Kelly Broughton, development services director, tells GlobeSt.com. “At approximately 535 acres, the project seeks to transform a largely vacant and underutilized industrial landscape into a thriving recreational, residential and resort destination on the Chula Vista waterfront. When complete, the public will enjoy more than 200 acres of parks and open space, a shoreline promenade, walking trails, RV camping, shopping, dining and more. While providing long-awaited, enhanced shoreline recreation and an active, commercial harbor in the South Bay, the Chula Vista Bayfront project will also establish ecological buffers to protect wildlife habitat, species and other coastal resources.”

The massive project is expected to have a substantial impact on the local economy, generating $1.3 billion and creating more than 2,300 jobs during construction with an additional $475 million generated annually after construction and an additional 7,800 jobs. Broughton says that the project will directly impact the community “by providing temporary and full time jobs, transient occupancy tax, property tax and sales tax revenue” and “indirectly by supporting the downtown Chula Vista community located less than one mile from the Chula Vista Bayfront.”