SAN DIEGO—Using the outdoors as an office-building amenity isbecoming all the rage in San Diego, most recently seenin Kearny Real Estate's upgrade of the 1966-builtUnion Bank building at 530 B St. downtown here—nowrenamed Five Thirty B. The firm is in the processof renovations that include a just-opened third-floor SkyTerrace featuring a wall-sized mural painted by a graffitiartist, plant beds, outdoor seating and upscale furnishings—andtenants were interested before the renovations were even completed,according to Elliot Weinstock, senior financialanalyst for Los Angeles-based Kearny. GlobeSt.com spoke withWeinstock about the changes and how they're impacting tenants andthe office market as a whole.

GlobeSt.com: What was your firm's goal whenrenovating the Union Bank building?

Weinstock: We intended to put $15million into the renovation, which also included other capex items,and the spaces need to be redone. We wanted to modernize it. UnionBank owned it before we did, and they operated it as a bankoperates real state. It wasn't leasing for thelast year to year-and-a-half before we owned it, so it needed a lotof attention. We officed in the building, which attracted us to it.It had great bones, and a small- to mid-sized company can take afull floor and have a lobby presence with 9,000 square feet. Theaverage user is 3,500 square feet, so we weren't expecting any hugetenants to come in. We wanted to liven it up; of the four officesubmarkets in Downtown San Diego, this is the least attractive, butthe area along the B St. corridor is gaining steam, and we thoughtwe could be a part of that.