For decades, the Pernicano's restaurant sat vacant in the heart of Hillcrest, gathering dust and complaints.
The site of the popular restaurant, once a meeting place for movie stars and famous athletes in the 1950s, is now an apartment building that will welcome its first residents just months from now in early 2024.
According to the website for the building, which has been named the Denizen, the apartments will provide “modern luxury living in Hillcrest.” The building has more than 60 units ranging in rent from $2,740 for a 526-square-foot studio to $4,535 for a 1,083-square-foot two-bed, two-bath unit. There will also be retail spaces available on the ground floor.
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Construction for the new building began last year after the shell of Pernicano’s was demolished in January. The restaurant was closed since 1985, and became riddled with graffiti and strewn with trash.
“It was just, like, an empty restaurant for a bunch of years,” Mike, a long-time Hillcrest resident, told NBC 7. “There was nothing going on there.”
Over the years, the Pernicano family had attempted to develop or sell the parcel in previous arrangements, but none of them panned out until 2019, when it was sold to a San Francisco-based developer for just under $8.5 million, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
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“Hillcrest business people are really excited about new residential units coming to the neighborhood,” Benjamin Nicholls, the executive director of the Hillcrest Business Association, said. “We need a lot of housing in Hillcrest and it needs to be housing for all sorts of people, not just folks at the top of the spectrum.”
Nicholls explained he wants to see a mix of both market-rate developments, like Denizen, and affordable projects coming to the area.
Last week, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria announced that five affordable housing projects have been recommended to receive a total of $15.4 million in city funding under an initiative that provides gap-funding assistance to speed construction. It includes one in Hillcrest that would bring 97 affordable homes for families, plus one manager’s unit, with 10 of the homes with support services.
“There’s two rents in Hillcrest,” Nicholls said. “Very expensive or not available, and that’s a real problem.”
NBC 7 reached out to Denizen and is awaiting a response.
