Little Italy Is Brimming With New Projects In Downtown San Diego
CityView is in the middle of one Downtown San Diego project and already looking with its JV partner for future opportunities, CityView managing director Tony Cardoza tells us. Tony will be part of a residential developer panel at Bisnow’s San Diego’s 3rd Annual Evolution of Downtown event on May 18 at the Westin San Diego hotel.
A JV of LA-based CityView and locally based CityMark Development is underway on AV8, a six-story, 129-unit mixed-use project with 7,600 SF of retail, in Downtown San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood. While this is the JV’s first SD project, it more than likely won’t be the last.
Pictured is AV8 looking north on Kettner Boulevard.
“We love the overall appeal of San Diego—the weather, livability,” Tony says, even though it’s not as densely urban as LA or OC. Housing usually follows jobs, he says. “San Diego is an anomaly—the inverse is true here. There are fewer jobs in Downtown than people living there.” He points out there are no large core employers in Downtown, and suggested the city’s past leadership has not been politically aggressive about luring tech companies to the Downtown core.
CityView invests in core urban markets and is heavily invested in LA and Orange counties, which are densely urban, Tony says. CityView entered the San Diego market for several reasons: San Diego people want to live Downtown; SD’s growing job market and movement of businesses into Downtown; and CityView was able to find a local partner with a lot of infill experience. “San Diego is late to the game,” Tony tells us, “but the new economy certainly provides opportunities, and San Diego will dance eventually.”
Recent reports indicate this may be starting to happen. San Diego created 39,700 new jobs in 2015, according to the California Employment Development Department. The SD economy grew by 3.7% in 2015—the greatest in the state—and unemployment dropped to 4.7% from 5.4% a year ago, the SD Regional EDC reported in March. San Diego’s healthy job growth has affected real estate, driving overall office vacancy down 42 basis points from Q4 2015 to 12.4%, reports a Q1 2016 market report from Colliers International. Downtown office vacancy dropped from 14.1% in Q4 2015 to 13.2% in Q1 2016.
CityView purchased a 30k SF auto-body shop with a historical facade, which architect Van Tilburg, Banvard & Soderbergh is preserving by incorporating it into the entry at AV8 (pictured looking south on Kettner Boulevard). CityView is investing $15M equity in the $45M project, and CityMark is managing the project.
Dallas-based Trammell Crow Residential will break ground in June on another residential mixed-use project in Little Italy. The five-story, 85-unit Alexan Little Italy (pictured), will occupy a city block between Hawthorne and Grape streets, on a site formerly occupied by an office building. This project includes 4k SF of ground-level retail and parking for 150 cars.
Additionally, Atlanta-based Wood Partners has proposed a 110-unit luxury apartment project at 1919 Pacific Hwy in Little Italy, between Cedar and Grape streets. The eight-story project would replace a 45-year-old hotel.
Above is a look at Little Italy along India Street today.
Hear more from Tony and other Downtown SD developers at Bisnow’s San Diego’s 3rd Annual Evolution of Downtown event on May 18 at the Westin San Diego hotel, 400 W Broadway in Downtown, beginning at 7:30am with breakfast and networking. Sign up here!
