JV Proposes New Waterfront Hotel On Scuttled Convention Center Site
A JV of The Robert Green Co and Fifth Avenue Landing LLC has submitted a proposal to the Unified Port of San Diego to build a $270M, 831-room hotel, on a downtown waterfront formerly proposed for expansion of the SD Convention Center.
Fifth Avenue Landing has held the ground lease on the six acres at Convention Way and Marina Park Way for three decades. Designed by Gensler, the project would enhance public access to the bay. Improvements include a new bridge linking the convention center’s public viewing platforms to new plazas, according to the San Diego Union Tribune. The site is next door to the convention center and just southeast of the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina hotel. The proposal calls for expanding the marina and a public open space, with waterfront viewing areas.The project requires port district and California Coastal Commission approvals.
In 2010 the convention center's operators entered a $13.5M lease-purchase agreement with Fifth Avenue Landing. The deal called for convention operators to pay $1M at the close of escrow, then $500k payments over four years, with a final balloon payment of $10.5M in the fifth year. The convention center operators backed out of the deal in May 2015 by defaulting on the last $1M payment, losing the $3M already paid. City officials had considered this parcel crucial to any future, contiguous expansion of the convention center. [SDUT]
