By Kate Callen
A city budget crisis is a golden opportunity to dump a failing project – so long as nobody cares how much money was already spent on it.
Mayor Todd Gloria just pulled the plug on his Civic Center Revitalization, a venture that struggled out of the gate in May 2023. Anyone back then could see that the dingy downtown complex needed restoration. But no one familiar with City Hall’s string of botched real estate deals felt bullish about it.
The approach to municipal redevelopment in the Faulconer-Gloria era has been, in essence, “Hey, kids, let’s put on a show!”
From 101 Ash Street to the Kearny Mesa truck yard to the East Village Ritz-Carlton to Midway Rising to Kettner & Vine, eager mayors have unveiled ambitious endeavors with much fanfare but little due diligence or independent analysis.
Elected officials love the sugar high of photo-op project launches. But they have no appetite for the hard work of studying market conditions and assessing risks. Where’s the fun in that?
Gloria set the stage for the Civic Center show in September 2022 when he appointed a “Civic Center Revitalization Citizens’ Committee.” The VIP advisory board boasted 22 members, just four fewer than the U.S. Cabinet.
In January 2023, the group issued a 17-page report that was big on concepts – “Celebrate Democracy,” “Create Dynamic Municipal Synergies,” “Shift Paradigms” – but short on specifics.
Another report from a group known for its commendable work ethic presented a sobering picture. The San Diego County Taxpayers Association (SDCTA) laid out four principles to prevent another financial calamity.
“Before [we] can support any specific proposals,” the report said, “the City must sustain a high level of transparency, robust public involvement at each step of the process, a timeline sufficient to guarantee that level of involvement, and safeguards to protect taxpayers from outcomes like we have seen at 101 Ash Street.”
Gloria’s blue-ribbon committee checked the public involvement box. But transparency? Timeline? Safeguards? They weren’t in the mix.
In the 18-month life of the Civic Center Revitalization project, the only building in the 8-acre parcel that has drawn any interest is, ironically, 101 Ash Street. Two offers for the luckless tower came and went.
Two finalists are now competing to redevelop it. One is Create Dev, run by Kelly Moden, the Gloria-appointed Chair of the Planning Commission. The other is the Affirmed Housing Group, a major Gloria donor and the owner of Carlsbad’s scandal-plagued Windsor Pointe housing development.
The bulk of the Civic Center complex, including the Civic Theatre and City Administration Building, will languish in their current state for a long time to come.
In his December 8 Politics Report, Scott Lewis at Voice of San Diego argued that the Civic Center Revitalization “is not costing the city anything right now. Cutting it won’t save the city anything.”
We respectfully disagree. Any active project on the City docket costs taxpayers what are, to borrow Sydney Greenstreet’s line in Casablanca, “carrying charges.” Those are hard to ferret out. You have to comb through databases and connect the dots.
The Union-Tribune’s Jennifer Van Grove reported that the City awarded a $2 million contract to Canadian firm P2 Advisers to help decide if a new skyscraper should be built. So far, $225,630 has been spent.
Van Grove also reported a separate 2022 city contract to global real estate firm Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL) to “assess its downtown office needs. … The consultant agreement was originally budgeted at $725,000. To date, the city has paid JLL $459,945 for its work.”
And the Prebys Foundation has given $303,000 to planning firm U3 Advisors to help the City conceptualize the now-defunct Civic Center project.
A final word on consultants, and on one in particular: Why is Jay Goldstone, adviser to two hapless mayors and a key figure in nearly all their doomed real estate deals, still collecting a city paycheck?
According to the OpenPayrolls website, Goldstone, whose title is “Assistant to the Chief Operating Officer,” is tied for ninth in top city salaries in 2022. The other ninth-place finisher? Eric Dargan, the current Chief Operating Officer. Both their estimated yearly salaries are listed at $265,554. (Dargan now takes home the princely sum of $409,000.)
“This is 325.3 percent higher than the average pay for co-workers,” OpenPayrolls notes, “and 270.1 percent higher than the national average for government employees.”
If Mayor T Glory is going on a fiscal diet, why not demo 101 Ash, abandon homeless warehouse plan, and ditch the pricey advisor plus other payroll leeches ?
I’m hearing of the city having a Monday meeting about kettner and vine. Anyone else?
Thx very much for this reality-check on the Civic Center “redevelopment” plan. We need more of this real-world reporting, to help us cut through the self-serving hype dished out by our Mayor and City Council.
Sadly the City has never been proactive when it comes to maintaining their real estate assets in a manner similar to the private sector.
On target! Thanks, Kate, for asking the right questions and pulling together this info. It’s especially important that you caught the false assumption that announced projects that later stall cost nothing. Every under-researched, over-promoted mayoral brainstorm costs, at the least, staff time and often substantial consulting fees, as well. It would be better to do an initial feasibility study (relying on in-house expertise, not high-priced &/or out-of-town advisors) before the press conference.
I had THOUGHT the voters in SD had finally figured out the “side hustles” of SD politicians, and highly paid City employees. But NOooooo. When given the opportunity to vote in a new Mayor, and two City Council reps, the voters didn’t do it. So now voters deal with the same-O-same-O dog and pony show.
EXCELLENT Article Kate and commenters too.