News
In 2013: 36 Block Makeover
November 30, 2012
| Our New Year's resolution will probably have to do with watching less reality TV. But I.D.E.A. Partners principal Pete Garcia will be creating a new reality in the East Village, one that could lead to 15,000 clean, high-paying jobs. |
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| Pete will be speaking at Bisnow?s first event in San Diego on Wed,December 5. Our Future of Downtown Summit will feature an all-star panel of CRE pros that are reshaping the landscape with urban, mixed-use development. (Shameless plug: sign up today!) Now back to I.D.E.A. District, a 36-block, mixed-use development in the East Village. It's a master vision for creating an urban jobs cluster, especially in design and technology. Pete estimates it'll contain up to 8M SF of creative office, residential, and other uses in a combo of new construction and refurbishment of existing buildings. It boasts stakeholders like San Diego City College, the NewSchool of Architecture, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and the new Central Library. Pete, an engineer, painter, and artist (shown with some of his work) was born and raised in Cuba, and ?came to the US by myself at age 13 with just the clothes on my back.? |
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| Another one of our panelists is OliverMcMillan Principal Jim Reynolds. Next month, his firm begins construction on a 208-unit apartment community at 12th and G streets. Jim tells us the infill mixed-use developer also will begin construction in February on a 350k SF luxury retail and apartment project in the River Oaks District of Houston, and recently started the Streets of Buckhead, another luxury retail/apartment project in Atlanta. Also, the company is selling its 460-unit Lofts Portfolio, consisting of three mixed-use communities on G Street in the East Village, because the market?s so hot: ?There's a lot of money chasing this type of product, so we think the cap rates will be quite low.? Jim expects to sell the properties by March. Much of his free time has involved sailing—he ran Dennis Connor?s Stars and Stripes program for a number of the America's Cup races. |
