Experienced Related eyes RiverWalk project

Experienced Related eyes RiverWalk project

By THOR KAMBAN BIBERMAN, The Daily Transcript

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

 

The Related Cos. is planning a projected $2 billion, mixed-use retail and residential development to replace the 200-acre RiverWalk property, which is bordered by Friars Road to the north and Interstate 8 to the south.

The Handlery Hotel and Resort along I-8 is not included in Related's proposal. 

Related's operating portfolio includes 24 luxury rental buildings with approximately 6,000 units, more than 9 million square feet of commercial properties, and approximately 35,000 affordable housing apartments located in San Diego County and throughout the United States. 

Related -- developing some 17 million square feet of mixed-use development in the Hudson Yards development in a far west portion of Manhattan -- plans to develop as many as 4,000 apartments and condominiums plus an undetermined amount of mixed-use commercial on the RiverWalk property.

Related is unusual in that it develops both luxury and affordable projects. 

The company has developed more than 25,000 units of luxury residential housing -- both rental and for-sale -- in New York City, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and South Florida. 

The firm has developed or renovated nearly 1,000 units of affordable housing in the San Diego region and has another 300 in planning. 

Two of those developments are in San Ysidro, one is in National City and another affordable project is planned for National City. 

Related is also the developer of the 50-unit Jean C. McKinney Manor, at 5641 Imperial Ave. in East San Diego, opening early next year. 

"RiverWalk will be our first market-rate project in San Diego," said Bill Witte, Related California chairman and chief executive officer. 

The first of 3,000 units would be constructed on 65 acres north of the trolley line to Friars Road. The remaining 1,000 units would be developed on a 35-acre parcel south of the trolley line to the San Diego River. 

The commercial development will be on the 70 acres south of the river. 

The River Walk property consists of three nine-hole courses. 

This isn't the first time the property has been considered for a major mixed-use development. In 1987,ChevronLand & Development Co. -- a subsidiary of Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) -- had planned a huge mixed-use development on what was then the Stardust County Club. 

Plans submitted by that developer called for 1,300 homes, 2.6 million square feet of office space, 200,000 square feet of retail and multiple hotels with a total of about 1,000 rooms. 

This proposal died as a result of the recession in the late 1980s. 

Given the old entitlements were allowed to lapse, Witte said his firm will have to get a new general plan amendment for the project -- something he probably would have had to do anyway given the large variance in the plans. 

What is now the RiverWalk property has been owned by the Levi and Cushman families for more than a century and was used for cattle ranching until 1947 when the Mission Valley Golf Course was born. 

The venue was the Stardust, from 1962 until the late 1990s, when the course was totally reconfigured to become RiverWalk. 

For now, Witte said he is in final negotiations with the Levi-Cushman families. Stephen Cushman, a former Port Commissioner and automobile dealership owner, declined comment other than to say that plans are in flux. 

The old Chevron Land project, while approved by the City Council in the 1980s, was controversial primarily because of the planned loss of the golf course. While Witte may face the same complaint this time around, he said the new plan would actually make for more accessible open space. 

"Not everybody's a golfer," Witte said. "We're going to provide more public green space, and people will have greater access to the [San Diego] River." 

While Related may have done smaller projects in San Diego, the privately held developer in conjunction with San Diego-based CityLink Investment Co. had in the late 2000s planned a 42-story mixed-use project at Market and Eighth streets in the East Village. 

Plans called for 418 residential units with 300 rentals and a 220-room boutique-style hotel, but the development was never built. 

Although requests for qualifications are going out for East Village property again, Related plans to focus its energies on Mission Valley. 

 

 

 

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