San Diego: Projects and Developments

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High-Rise Proposed for 520 W. Ash in Little Italy
http://www.sandiegostreets.com/2015/...-little-italy/

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Seaport Village: Speed wins day

San Diego port commissioners shocked the development community this week when they swiftly narrowed the field of bidders to redevelop Seaport Village and its surrounding acreage.

In 6-1 vote Wednesday, the San Diego Unified Port District board decided to focus on Protea Waterfront Development’s proposal to convert 70 acres of prime waterfront property into a proposed $1.2 billion mix of hotels, shops and restaurants, a beach, aquarium and 480-foot observation tower called “The Spire.”

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“To me, it’s a watershed moment for the port,” said Yehudi “Gaf” Gaffen, one of Protea’s principals. He said the port had previously nurtured a reputation of soliciting development proposals and then spending years trying to decide what to build and who should build it.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...redevelopment/

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UC San Diego pulled in a record $1.07 billion last year for research, maintaining the school’s status as one of the 10 largest research centers in the U.S.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...cord-research/

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Lane Field North.

Work is well underway on a 17-story, dual-branded hotel and a 2-acre public park.

If all goes as planned, Lane Field North should be completed in 2016. Until then, we’ll be watching this key piece of the Downtown waterfront come together.

http://www.sandiegostreets.com/2015/...e-field-north/

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Lane Field hotels open with 'Cheery Yellow' flourish
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...hotel-opening/

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Lane Field Hotel South – Phase 2
http://isellthecity.com/lane-field-hotel-development/

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San Diego Panorama by David Colombo, on Flickr

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Comic-Con to fans: no offsite convention expansion

Comic-Con organizers are taking advantage of a huge, captive audience this week to take aim at plans that would expand the San Diego convention center in a separate facility off the waterfront.

While the Chargers aren’t mentioned by name, a message from Comic-Con board president John Rogers in the convention’s souvenir book reiterates its opposition to anything that would thwart a contiguous expansion of its longtime home. The future of the Con in San Diego could depend on it, Rogers implies in his statement.

“We have signed contracts to remain in San Diego through 2018,” Rogers writes in his president’s message. “We hope to stay much longer. But any decision on our future will take into account negotiations on a variety of fronts that will have a direct effect on our exhibitors, panel participants, and most important, you, the fans and attendees.”

With more than 135,000 attendees, the always sold-out Comic-Con International long ago outgrew the confines of the city’s waterfront convention center. It has made do by expanding programming into nearby hotels, the Horton Grand Theatre and the San Diego Central Library.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...um-convention/

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San Diego Chargers getting stadium game-changer?

To try to “keep the drama down to a minimum,” San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith is asking the state Supreme Court to expedite a ruling in a closely-watched case whose outcome could change the playing field for the San Diego Chargers as the team seeks to build a downtown football stadium.

The court case in question could be a game-changer for any California citizens’ initiative that creates new taxes for specific purposes because it might mean a simple majority vote instead of a two-thirds supermajority vote for approval. That lower threshold would sharply increase the chances the San Diego Chargers’ proposal to increase the hotel tax to 16.5 percent to pay for a joint convention center and stadium could succeed.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...allot-measure/

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Pendry Hotel Takes Form in the Gaslamp

Developed by the Robert Green Company, the 12-story, 317-room hotel will be managed by Montage Hotels & Resorts. Montage currently operates five luxury hotels in destinations like Beverly Hills and Laguna Beach. This will be the first of the company’s new Pendry brand, which promises first-class amenities and unique nightlife under one roof.

http://www.sandiegostreets.com/2016/...n-the-gaslamp/

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East Village South: Non-stadium plan revealed

As the Chargers’ $1.8 billion stadium-convention center heads toward the November ballot, an alternate vision will be presented Saturday for downtown’s East Village.

The so-called “East Village South Focus Plan” envisions apartment towers, high-tech start-ups, innovation-economy office compounds, new parks and plazas and maybe a convention annex or arena.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...-village-plan/

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Ritz Carlton, Whole Foods OK’d for East Village

The $400 million mixed use development at 7th and Market is designed as two towers rising 19 and 39 stories, with a combiniation of apartments, condos, office space, a Ritz Carlton hotel and Whole Foods market. Carrier Johnson + Culture

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...oved-downtown/

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Chargers can lose — and win

In the absence of one or both of those solar-system-changing events, I can’t picture the Chargers’ “convadium” measure getting even 50 percent, let alone the two-thirds majority that appears to be the legally required margin for victory.

The San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce’s odd seal of approval notwithstanding, there are too many deep teams lined up to defeat the Chargers downtown stadium play.

From tax hawks to populist pols of both parties to those who envision a vital East Village where people live and work, the long knives are out.

So why are the Chargers going through this democratic wringer, spending several millions of dollars only to have their helmets handed to them on a plate?

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...-lose-and-win/

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SDSU raises near-record $130M for research

San Diego State University pulled in $130 million for research during fiscal 2015, the second highest figure in campus history and the largest figure of any California State University campus.

As part of the CSU system, San Diego State is primarily devoted to teaching. But the campus decided in the 1980s to develop a large research program that has challenged some University of California campuses for money, as well as those in the CSU.

The $24.9 million SDSU obtained from the National Institutes of Health in fiscal 2015 was higher than UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara got from the same agency

SDSU received money across a wide variety of academic disciplines. The contracts include the start of a $10 million endowment fund that will be used to study disparities in the public's access to health care. The campus also got $2 million to search for early development signs of autism, and $2 million to help in the development of new antibiotics.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...search-record/

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Voters to decide Lilac Hills project
Supervisors vote to place Valley Center development on November ballot

County voters will decide in November whether more than 1,700 homes should be built on a huge swatch of mostly agricultural land in Valley Center.

The Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 Tuesday to put a citizens initiative on the ballot that would clear the way for the controversial Lilac Hills Ranch housing development, which has been in the planning stages for a decade. Supervisor Bill Horn abstained, after the state determined last year that he had a conflict of interest because he owns property nearby.

Lilac Hills Ranch calls for 1,746 homes, plus commercial space and parks and trails to be built on 608 acres roughly 12 miles north of Escondido just east of Interstate 15. Current zoning would allow for only 110 homes on the land.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...tive-approved/
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...g-waving-razz/
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...iative-county/

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Tijuana prepares for new Bus Rapid Transit system
Main route will lead from the U.S. border to eastern Tijuana

Tijuana is preparing to launch a major overhaul of its chaotic public transportation system before the year is out, and the centerpiece will be a 23-mile Bus Rapid Transit route that runs between the downtown area near the U.S. border and the eastern part of the city.

The project’s first phase, to be completed over the next couple of years, will serve some 120,000 passengers a day, or about 30 percent of the city’s ridership, Mayor Jorge Astiazarán said during a tour of the route this week. The mayor wants the initial stage of the plan, with 51 stations and two terminals, to start offering service before his term ends on Nov. 30.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...rapid-transit/

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Tijuana group urges pedestrian improvements

Rendering for a "Threshold of the Americas" linking the border with Tijuana's downtown area. This shows a view for a proposed plaza looking northeast from the southern bank of the Tijuana River.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...strian-border/

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Stadium, convention initiatives need two-thirds vote
City attorney weighs in on hotel tax ballot measures

Both the Chargers initiative to build a downtown stadium and a second November ballot measure to raise funds for a convention center will require approval of two-thirds of voters as opposed to a simple majority, San Diego City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said Friday.

While acknowledging that the legal question will likely be decided by the state Supreme Court, Goldsmith concluded that based on current law, the two measures need a higher threshold for passage because they’re seeking to raise the hotel tax for a specific funding purpose.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...ed-two-thirds/

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FOCUS: SAN DIEGO CONNECTIONS TO THE RIO GAMES
Climate, competition cited as reasons dozens of U.S. and foreign athletes choose to train here

Australia’s BMX team held a media day last week before flying to Brazil for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro that open Friday. It wasn’t in Sydney or Melbourne or the capital of Canberra or on the Gold Coast, where the nation’s bicycle motocross headquarters are.

It was in Chula Vista

It has become a quadrennial pastime for America’s Finest City, embracing its five-ring identity, celebrating the diversity of its athletic legacy, cataloging the number of Olympians who are from here or currently live and train here: two water polo players, three sailors, four volleyball players, runners, jumpers, throwers, BMX cyclists, track cyclists, gymnasts, triathletes.

The count for Rio, including those competing for foreign countries and the part-time rowing contingent, is north of 110 — which is up slightly from London in 2012, which was up from Beijing in 2008, which was up from Athens in 2004.

Let’s pause for some perspective: Only 25 entire countries sent Olympic delegations to London larger than San Diego’s 114-strong presence in Rio; 177 countries sent smaller groups, including Cuba, Greece, Mexico, India and Nigeria.

Another way to look at it: San Diego County has roughly 1 percent of the nation’s population, and about 18 percent of its 555 Olympic athletes in Rio. The Olympic Training Center compiled a list of U.S. athletes who used the facility at some point during the previous four-year training quad — some for years, some for weeks — and the number swelled to 200.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...r-chula-vista/

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PROTEA WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT SELECTED TO REDEVELOP SEAPORT VILLAGE
https://www.bisnow.com/san-diego/new...-village-62799