Local civic leaders working with an urban planning consultant have unveiled an ambitious plan to redevelop six blocks of city-owned real estate into a mixed-use hub with a “world-class” public space in the heart of downtown San Diego.
The sweeping plan envisions a redo of the city’s Civic Center into an arts and educational hub that will include thousands of residential units in multiple high-rises, as well as shops, restaurants and a hotel, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Philadelphia-based U3 Advisors created the conceptual plan. It was commissioned more than a year ago by the Prebys Foundation, a private San Diego-based philanthropic organization with more than $1B in assets and it was facilitated by the Downtown San Diego Partnership.
The Civic Center complex, which sits between A Street and C Street and is bounded on the east and west by First Avenue and Third Avenue, respectively, includes the City Administration Building, which opened in 1965, serving as the home to the mayor’s office and city council chambers. The quad also includes the Civic Center Plaza office tower, Golden Hall, 3,000-seat Civic Theatre and a parking garage.
The redevelopment will also include a fifth block at 1222 First Avenue, which is home to the City Operations Building, and an adjacent block at 101 Ash Street.
More than two years ago, Mayor Todd Gloria proposed to put the Civic Center on the market for sale or lease while the city aimed to acquire another property to replace the City Administration Building, also known as City Hall.
In December, Gloria scrapped that plan, disclosing that the city is facing municipal budget deficits totaling nearly $1.5B over the next five years. Instead, the mayor said more city workers will be moving into City Hall as San Diego offloads other downtown office space.
U3 Advisers believes its vision for the property is flexible enough to accommodate the municipal government’s needs. The consulting firm is recommending a phased approach that begins with the demolition of the only unused property on the Civic Center quad, Golden Hall.
The plan calls for the block housing the vacant Golden Hall to be redeveloped as a cultural hub with a new performing arts and education center anchored by a new theater and enhanced space for educational institutions, including the San Diego Community College District.
Once Golden Hall is removed, B Street will be reconnected to First Avenue, creating an enlarged pedestrian thoroughfare and a plaza envisioned as the central gathering place in downtown San Diego. The new civic space will be large enough to house a holiday market and an ice-skating rink, as well as the city’s Christmas tree.
The second phase of the project will involve soliciting developers to build residential towers in the footprint of the Civic Theatre. The new high-rises would feature ground-floor retail and cater to specialized tenants, including students, teachers and artists.
The final phase of the long-term plan envisions redeveloping City Hall and the Civic Center Plaza office building with a hotel, more residential towers and street-level storefronts.
Omar Blaik, CEO of U3 Advisors, conceded that bringing the project to fruition will require a heavy infusion of public money from the county and the state.
“At the county and the state level, we need to really be bold, and we need to go and talk about the future of Southern California and the future of San Diego, its importance to the state. That, we hope, can garner public support and public funding,” Blaik told the Union-Tribune.
“In projects that don’t pencil out like this, it’s a capital stack that is going to have every tool of subsidy that you can imagine. We just need to layer it on until we can get to a place where we can justify the cost of the project,” he said.
The Prebys Foundation has provided $593K in grant funding to the Downtown Partnership, which is administering the contract with U3.
The nonprofit foundation, established in 2016 after the death of local developer Conrad Prebys, amplified its commitment to the downtown revitalization last month by purchasing a nearby office tower at 401 B Street.
The philanthropic organization purchased the Wells Fargo Plaza tower in a $40M cash deal from the Irvine Company, which bought the 24-story downtown office building in 2004 for more than $148 million.
“We really care about downtown,” Grant Oliphant, CEO of Prebys, told the Union-Tribune. “We were looking at what was happening with downtown real estate and thinking, if we really do care about the fate of what’s happening in downtown, then maybe we ought to be a stakeholder.”
In 2021, the Prebys Foundation sold its portfolio of 66 residential complexes to Blackstone for more than $1B. The foundation, which prioritizes grants to advance health care, medical research, the arts and youth development, ended 2023 with $1.13B of assets, in a year that saw it award more than $53M in grants and charitable gifts.
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