More highrises headed downtown

Civic San Diego, the city's downtown development-review arm, approved three high-rise projects Wednesday and made legal adjustments to two others.

The biggest projects, previously reviewed at length by one of its committees, sailed through with no discussion since they involved exclusive negotiating agreements not the designs and details.

Most attention was focused on a 253-apartment project at 330 13th Street, just east of the Central Library with its iconic dome.

Directors granted design approval after reviewing nine requests for deviations from various design guidelines, but nixed a light-saber-looking blue light that architect Mark Kirkhart had proposed to accentuate the top floors of the 22-story building.

The project, estimated to cost from $100 million to $125 million, is a project of Richman Group of California, whose president, Luke Daniels, previously was involved with another company's redevelopment plans for the Tops nightclub/China Camp restaurant property on Pacific Highway at Hawthorn Street, now being replaced by a hotel.

DesignARC is the architect with library architect Rob Quigley responsible for an adjacent three-story building, "The Sliver," that will include a ground-floor restaurant and two apartments.Other highlights include a 19-floor "Sky Lounge," hotel-style pool and, on the fourth floor, a spa, hotel-style pool, fire pits, two-level recreation center and gym and demonstration kitchen. Jennifer Ayala, a nonvoting member of CivicSD's real estate committee to offer design critiques, is acting as a project manager through her firm, Nexus Planning Consultants, and would recuse herself from voting on this project. Spurlock Poirier is the landscape architectural firm.

Daniels walked CivicSD's nine-member board through a detailed review of the project's genesis, mindful that it occupies a key spot on the Park Boulevard link between Balboa Park and San Diego Bay, right where the street makes a 45-degree diagonal turn at K Street.

"We wanted to think strategically about the location," Daniels said. "We wanted to think macro about the neighborhood and opportunities to create a benefit."

Those benefits include a 22,852-square-foot privately owned public space, the 8,215-square-foot restaurant and a design that serves as a backdrop to the library's dome on one side and a new face to East Village on the other side.

"(The site) allowed us to pay tribute to the dome, let the dome 'breathe,' allow the building to face down Park Boulevard and create a symbolic front door," Daniels said.

Since an earthquake faults runs through part of the property, Daniels said he engaged a structural engineer to design the 234 parking spaces in six levels, three below ground, that would be as efficient as possible without encroaching on the fault line.

"We heard a lot about the tower looking bulky," Daniels said. "We wanted to give the building a more elegant, slender, confident look."

CivicSD senior planner Scott Glazebrook described the overall look as "retro-modern" with rounded extended corners of the lower podium level, horizontal projecting balconies in the tower and a "light scrim of perforated corrugated metal screens" covering part of the west facade.

The directors agonized over the parking arrangement that would require drivers to navigate in and out of a deadend parking spaces. But the board decided to accept the plan, assuming residents will quickly learn how to avoid scraping the sides of their cars as they back out.

Director Donna Jones praised the result, especially since it came with the unusual involvement of four or five architects and planners who had to collaborate with one another to arrive at unified concept.

Director Richard Geisler liked the blue light flourish at the top but Chairman Jeff Gattas did not.

And in an usual public repudiation of his own architect, Daniels also said he personally didn't like it.

"I love Mark -- we've done a lot of projects together," he said, nodding to architect Kirkhart.

He said the idea was to mimic the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles that resembles a stack of phonograph discs, and didn't think a touch of blue was needed. The CivicSD board agreed and vetoed the light.

Daniels said he hopes construction can begin next year and be completed in 2019.

Design review of another high-rise apartment project at 460 16th St. was delayed until September.

A 160-room Ritz Carlton hotel is part of a proposed downtown project that would also include a Whole Foods market, apartments, offices and affordable housing. — Courtesy of Cisterra Development

( / Courtesy of Cisterra Development)

But CivicSD did approve two sets of exclusive negotiating agreements on developments proposed on city-owned land. City Council action is expected to take up the agreements in September. Carrier Johnson + Culture is the architect on both projects.

The first was with Cisterra Development for a 39-story mixed-use project on city-owned land at Seventh Avenue and Market Street. The project, estimated at $350 million, would include a 160-room Ritz Carlton hotel, 58 condos, 147 apartments, 155,538 square feet of office space and 46,187 square feet of retail. Negotiations are to cover not only development details but also the price to be paid for the property. Cisterra hopes to conclude talks in time to start construction next year for completion in 2019.

The other agreement was with Holland Partners for the block bounded by Market and G streets, Park Boulevard and 11th Avenue, where the Quartyard temporary food, drink and entertainment venue built of repurposed shipping containers.

Holland proposes a 34-story tower with 341 apartments, 51,650-square-feet of office space and 22,865 square feet of retail . CivicSD project manager Eli Sanchez said this $200 million project would probably go forward a little later than Cisterra for a completion around 2020.

In other action, CivicSD agreed to the sale of the city-owned land beneath Market Street Square apartments at 606 Third Ave. to the owner G&K Industries. The price was set at nearly $15.6 million on condition that 39 affordable units remain in place until 2051. If the property is redeveloped, at least 40 units or 10 percent of the total would be rent-restricted for 55 years. The 192-unit project, designed by Quigley, opened in 1987 two years after neighboring Horton Plaza shopping center. City Council approval of the sale is required. The proceeds are to be set aside for future affordable-housing projects.

CivicSD also recommended the council approve the transfer of 136 affordable units at 16th and Market Street to city ownership. It also recommended designation of 35,000 square feet in the Ballpark Village mixed-used project south of Petco Park for affordable apartments. Previously, the 16th and Market property was held by the city's redevelopment agency and the Ballpark Village units were to be for sale.