The Civic San Diego Board of Directors will meet Wednesday to discuss entering into negotiations with a developer on a proposed 39-story, mixed-use building and hotel in downtown’s East Village area.
The proposal, from Cisterra Development, includes a 751,474-square-foot development at Seventh Avenue and Market Street that would include more than 200 residential and affordable housing units, including 58 for-sale condos, 115 market-rate rental apartments and 32 affordable housing apartments.
The site would also feature commercial offices, retail space, a ground-floor restaurant, public open space, public restrooms, a 670-space subterranean parking garage and a 160-room Ritz-Carlton hotel.
The 300-foot high-rise would include a gourmet grocer located on a mezzanine above the ground floor, too.
“The apartments and office floors rise in two separate towers that connect at the first floor of the hotel with condominiums rising above the hotel and apartments,” the proposal explains, describing a visual of the plan.
In addition, a public plaza and public art space would be located at the southeast corner of the site. Building components are expected to include eco-roofs, building-top wind turbines, sun shading and sustainable materials.
According to the proposal, which can be read in its entirety here, the development of the Seventh
Avenue and Market Street site “would advance the goals and policies of the San Diego Downtown Community Plan” by providing a range of housing opportunities and adding public improvements to the area, including parking facilities.
The project also aims to “stimulate new commercial, residential, employment and economic growth, and to improve the circulation of people and vehicles,” the paperwork states.
The proposal anticipates that the redevelopment project will generate 655 construction jobs and 603 permanent jobs in the area.
Cisterra will be solely responsible for all of the costs and expenses linked to the design, development and construction of the site.
Civic San Diego, a city-owned non-profit and development partner for urban neighborhoods, has already recommended the City of San Diego approve the plan and enter into negotiations with Cisterra to purchase and develop the land for the project via a Disposition and Development Agreement (DDA).
If this happens, the negotiation period between the developer and the City will last 180 days, with an optional 90-day extension, documents say.
Civic San Diego received several proposals for redevelopment projects at the East Village site after putting out a request for ideas in December 2013. Those submissions were then evaluated, with the Cisterra proposal coming out as the frontrunner in May 2015.