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CCDC News: Strong Interest Shown from Major Development Teams for Civic Center Complex Redevelopment

SAN DIEGO, CA — The Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC), working on behalf of the City of San Diego, today received eight Statements of Qualifications from prospective development teams interested in exploring a possible redevelopment of San Diego’s Civic Center Complex. A complete list of teams is included at the end of this release.

Teams from throughout the United States and Canada submitted. A diverse selection committee will convene by the end of October to review the proposals and short-list the teams to two to three finalists by the end of November.

“We are very pleased with the strong interest and response to this development opportunity,” said CCDC President Nancy Graham. “This demonstrates a vote of confidence in the San Diego real estate market. The selection committee’s next step will be to identify the two or three strongest development teams and then CCDC will begin the extensive public outreach process.”

The finalists will participate in a series of public meetings to be held throughout the city to share their prior development experiences and listen to public feedback, questions and ideas. Final proposals from all firms are currently scheduled to be due in mid-2008. Each finalist will be expected to incorporate ideas and suggestions gained from these public meetings into submitted plans.

Currently, San Diego’s City Administration Building accommodates only 600 employees, and the City has had to lease privately owned space for more than 15 years. City offices are now located within eight downtown buildings (four leased), representing more than one half million square feet of leased space.

Collectively, more than 3,000 employees work in these properties, which comprise annual leasing costs of $13.5 million. Deferred maintenance on the City Administration Building alone is estimated to exceed well above $10 million. Because most of the leases will come due in 2013 and 2014 and rates are projected to increase significantly, this RFQ is seen as a proactive approach to evaluate possible costs savings through redeveloping the site.

The RFQ process will include a thorough financial evaluation to ensure that a project would move forward only if it could clearly demonstrate a significant reduction in operational and capital costs to the City. Similar public/private partnership projects include the new city hall in Austin, Texas, and state-of-the-art courthouse facilities in New York City.

Goals of the RFQ include:
• Revitalizing the city’s civic core
• Catalyzing private sector development in the Civic Center area
• Providing more accessible public spaces
• Providing smart growth transit-oriented development
• Opening B Street, closed to pedestrian and vehicular traffic for 40 years
• Replacing aging infrastructure
• Constructing a more publicly accessible City Hall
• Increasing tax increment revenues generated to the City
• Utilizing sustainable development techniques.

The full list of applicants follows:

For questions or further information please contact Jeff Graham at 619-533-7181 or jgraham@ccdc.com. 

About CCDC
Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC) is a public, nonprofit corporation established in 1975 by the City of San Diego to plan and facilitate the redevelopment of downtown’s 1,500 acres. To learn more, visit: www.ccdc.com

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