SAN DIEGO—South County's Millenia is fast becoming accepted as an urban center, thanks in part to the recently completed Otay Ranch Town Center across the street, Meridian Development's president Guy Asaro tells GlobeSt.com. The master-planned community recently celebrated the opening of its first for-sale residential neighborhoods Evo, Trio and Metro, which resulted in an immediate sell-out and a campout by 17 families. We spoke exclusively with Asaro about the project and how South County serves as the perfect location for this community.

GlobeSt.com: How do you account for the success of Millenia's for-sale residential neighborhoods' grand opening?

Asaro: We attribute that success to a couple of things. First, the Millenia community has been long in the making. It's a well-designed, urban, pedestrian-oriented environment that the community has been watching for a long period of time, and they've been waiting for the first neighborhoods to open. Equally important is product design: we have three wonderfully designed urban attached-product neighborhoods that lend themselves to an active lifestyle but are still organized in very family-friendly way. We've got products in that project that really appeal to a wide spectrum of folks: young professionals, two working folks starting out with a family, some empty-nesters, etc. We hit the mark in designing product that will appeal to a broad spectrum of buyers. San Diego County has become such an expensive place to live relative to housing, but our community is very affordable within the spectrum of new housing opportunities available.

GlobeSt.com: Millenia is designed to be an urban center of 80 square blocks, about the size of Downtown San Diego. Is South County ready for an urban center? How are land sales coming?

Asaro: South County and Eastern Chula Vista are well known for a high-quality master plan that has been largely suburban in scope. It has been magnificently executed, but it was missing the urban part, and this was by design. It often takes years for these communities to mature to the point where you could refocus inward, and the Otay Ranch plan developed with this in mind. Millenia was developed to match with Otay Ranch Center, a retail center by General Growth that by design was designated right next to Millenia. Residents can walk right across the street and access that center with beautiful retail shops, and restaurants on day one. The complement of those two is absolutely what the community needs.

Land sales have been great. Meridian Development is the master developer and has been managing it for Stratford Land. We started to engage in January 2014, and since then we have sold six parcels to vertical developer/builders across all spectrums of building type: apartment folks, for-sale developers, hotel (Ayres), retail (Sudberry) and residential (Shea). The rental piece has gone to Chelsea Investment Corp. and to ourselves, while the office piece has gone to Chesnut Properties. Also, apartments have gone to Trammell Crow Co., and there has been an apartment project completed by Fairfield Residential. We've done all of that since January 2014, and we currently have five other pieces in escrow. Those five pieces are a blend of residential for-rent, for-sale and some additional office parcels.

GlobeSt.com: What is the construction schedule for the retail center by Sudberry Properties and the hotel by Ayres Hotels?

Asaro: The Sudberry building is approximately 130,000 square feet of retail, and it's a well-designed retail center that will address the community needs of Millenia and will bring forth some regional users that will address the overall community. We're excited about that. We're a couple months away from announcing tenants, but we will likely break ground in the first quarter of 2017 and complete the project around the second quarter 2018.

Ayres is a really great hotel operator. We loved having them in the planning. Their project in our community is a 138-room, limited-service four-story boutique hotel that's wonderfully designed. It will likely break ground at the beginning of 2017 and hopefully complete by the end of 2017.

GlobeSt.com: Jobs are central to the Millenia plan. How is your campaign to bring tech firms to South County coming along?

Asaro: We're working hand in hand with Chesnut Properties, which is leading that effort. We at the Millennia project understood the importance of a semi-urban environment component to creating jobs in the community. Like many master-planned communities that subsidize other activities (golf or a swim club), the activity we needed to subsidize was office generation, so that's why we sought out and found a quality office developer in Chesnut Properties to subsidize so they could design quality project that would appeal to employers in the region. The first one, “Think,” is out in the marketplace, and they're sharing it with potential users and employers. We're very encouraged by their progress in that. In the not too distant future, you will hear some good news coming out of the Chesnut camp.

GlobeSt.com: How do you account for the success of Millenia's for-sale residential neighborhoods' grand opening?

GlobeSt.com: Millenia is designed to be an urban center of 80 square blocks, about the size of Downtown San Diego. Is South County ready for an urban center? How are land sales coming?

GlobeSt.com: What is the construction schedule for the retail center by Sudberry Properties and the hotel by Ayres Hotels?

GlobeSt.com: Jobs are central to the Millenia plan. How is your campaign to bring tech firms to South County coming along?

Instant Insights /

Nearby Retail Helps Urban Work in South County

Related Stories

Recommended For You