Artist’s rendering of Papa Doug Manchester’s plans for Mission Valley.
The owner of the U-T San Diego, Papa Doug Manchester, unveiled his plans to “transform” Mission Valley recently, and at the top of his list of development for the San Diego River area is a 22-story skyscraper containing 200 residences.
Also on his list are 10-story twin towers that will cost an estimated $200-million, and will feature mixed-use project residential, office and retail. The project will include:
“235,000 square feet of offices and 6,500 square feet of retail in another 10-story building, which is to include the newspaper’s headquarters. A parking garage with a rooftop swimming pool, gym and tennis courts is also planned as well as a San Diego River trail for biking, walking and running.”
This is all according to Perry Dealy, head of Dealy Development and Manchester’s construction team, who laid out the preliminary plans at the July meeting of Mission Valley Planning Group. According to one news report of the presentation, it drew
“… mostly positive reviews, such as that from planning group member Gina Cord. “In my opinion, the U-T redevelopment plans are outstandingly favorable and will bring additional class to Mission Valley,” Cord e-mailed. “We need the type of people that can afford to rent Class A office buildings and top-of-the-line condos and stores. I say ‘Bravo.’” ‘
Here are some other quotes from Dealy about the project:
“Transit-oriented design is a very key part of the future growth of San Diego County, and this project is a good example of how mixed-use projects can serve as infill for redevelopment/ We’re really trying to create a wonderful pedestrian experience putting townhomes up against tower buildings. It’s possible to do these things sensitively, allowing the river to flow and the natural habitat to coexist with pedestrians.” …
“Being a good steward of the land, putting people living, playing and working there is a much better use in this location,” noting that Manchester had acquired the U-T property because “it’s a great real estate investment,” Dealy pointed out much of the existing site is a giant parking lot next to the San Diego River. …
“We’re not changing the existing two buildings,” Dealy added of existing onsite facilities housing the U-T newspaper’s headquarters and production machinery. Office space to be created will be strictly Class A, though there are no specific tenants in mind. “We’re open to the marketplace,” said Dealy. “Ideally, you would have one or two big tenants taking up a large part of the building. We’ll go out on the market looking for tenants with contiguous, large floor plans.” …
“We hope to have the project entitled by the end of 2013,” Dealy said. “It will probably take about a year to get the construction permits and about 18 months to construct, depending on market demand.” Dealy estimated a mid-2016 opening. …
“We don’t know if we’re doing it for sure, but we’re thinking of creating a new pedestrian crossing across the river,” Dealy said. “We’re also looking at putting a restaurant with convenience parking on the riverfront.” …
“Where you have office and residential, you have a perfect opportunity to share parking. Ninety percent of office parking will be available at peak demand for residents, and about 50 percent of residential parking will be available at peak demand for office. Why spend resources building more parking, or having parking out on the street, when you’ve got this reservoir of office parking available?”
Map of plans of Manchester’s U-T empire in Mission Valley (we apologize for the quality of this map as we lifted it from the original small image at the article referenced in our post).
Dealy said the U-T headquarters’ redevelopment, which will create a work-live environment by blending residential, office and retail spaces, will transform Mission Valley.
“This is a great opportunity to embrace the river and integrate the whole feel, look and ecology of the environment into our project,” he said.
For the remainder of the article from Mission Valley News, go here.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Sounds like potential for more traffic in Mission Valley
Has Papa Doug ever tried to get onto I-8 from any direction? Does he drive his own car like the rest of us?
Or, does he expect to make his MV transformation to be a ghetto for the super rich?
Check out the artist’s rendering; notice how the 22-story building is in the background so its impact and sight are less disturbing, but it is twice the size of the buildings in the foreground.
From a planning perspective, this is exactly what should happen there.
Is there really that much vacancy in the local commercial real estate market? Seth is right, from a usage point of view this is good but it’s also naive hope. These concepts of “live/work/shop” communities always sound good on paper, that’s what was planned for the Golden Triangle are from the ground up. I can’t help but notice it usually ends up with people commuting from their “live/work/shop” addresses in University City to their “live/work/shop” addresses in Mission Valley. I tried that about 20 years ago specifically living on Nobel Drive in the La Scala Apts and worked on Eastgate Mall. The neighborhood was boring and the neighbors were pretentious ****s. I swear if your house was on fire up there they wouldn’t get up off the couch to call the fire dept. This is why vehicle thefts and breakin stats were the highest in the city. “Close the curtains, honey, there are other people out there, you can just hear them. The nerve!” I had my box, they had theirs, the box could be anywhere in the world so there was never a sense of community. Couldn’t wait to get back to OB.
I found this funny:
“We need the type of people that can afford to rent Class A office buildings and top-of-the-line condos and stores. I say ‘Bravo.’”
You want “let them eat cake” neighbors whose nights are filled with counting leveraged buyouts instead of sheep, you can have them.