Your Exclusive Guide to Downtown San Diego
Downtown is the future. It’s also right now.
This publication celebrates downtown—the growing, exciting heart of San Diego. The collection of neighborhoods that make up the center of the city—from Marina District to Gaslamp Quarter and East Village, Little Italy to Columbia, City Center and Cortez—are all emerging as vital, dynamic areas with their own powerfully attractive identities, locals and neighborhood life. The whole of downtown is a community, a destination and a family with many different characters that reward locals and visitors alike.
Downtown is San Diego’s most exciting, dynamic community.
That’s good news for the city overall. As San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer told the CityAge 2017 conference, “We compete with the world for talent. People have a choice. If we can’t offer a good quality of life, we can’t compete.” Betsy Brennan, President & CEO, Downtown San Diego Partnership agrees. “Downtown is San Diego’s hub for all things work and play,” she says. “Our innovative businesses, creative community spaces, and world-class amenities provide a meaningful place to work and a dynamic place to live.” The heart of the city is getting a supercharge of quality of life as plans to knit together the many attractions along the water coalesce, making it an integral and uniquely varied part of everyday city life for both residents and visitors. Read about that on page 16.
Plans for the urban waterfront will transform downtown into San Diego’s most desirable community.
And while downtown has long been a very good place to live and play, plans by University of California, San Diego to create a major downtown center—the Innovative Cultural and Education Hub—portend a future when residents will increasingly be able to work downtown as well. You’ll find that story on page 36.
The planned UC San Diego hub will make downtown a complete community—a place to live, work and love.
All that fresh air and innovation builds up an appetite. Fortunately, downtown has everything to satisfy. Take a look at page 40 for more about our madly inventive, delicious, surprising food scene.
Downtown is indeed the future of San Diego; it’s here that San Diego is evolving from good to great, from sunny beach city to brainy coastal innovation capital—one where the sun happens to shine most of the time and a famously laid-back vibe is never lost. We look forward to seeing you here—as a resident, an investor, a visitor. There’s a downtown San Diego for all of us.
Your Exclusive Guide to Downtown San Diego
Downtown is the future. It’s also right now.This publication celebrates downtown—the growing, exciting heart of San Diego. The collection of neighborhoods that make up the center of the city—from Marina District to Gaslamp Quarter and East Village, Little Italy to...
read more
All-Patio Restaurant Rises Inside Downtown Boutique Hotel
The original facade of the iconic Army-Navy YMCA building on Broadway remains, but inside, the historic downtown site has been completely transformed into boutique hotel called The Guild that houses a new restaurant and cocktail bar. Designed by Sormeh Rienne, the...
read more
Horton Plaza Tech Campus is a Go
Horton Plaza’s second act as a mixed-use office campus has received the official seal of approval from city leaders, who said Monday that the property’s new owners could move forward with their plan to turn the distressed mall into an engine for job growth...
read more
Brian Malarkey gearing up for opening of $5.5M upscale restaurant in downtown San Diego
Still months away from opening his much anticipated, high-end Asian restaurant, chef Brian Malarkey is already convinced that its location near the downtown bayfront will one day become a dining destination that will rival Little Italy. Malarkey and business partner...
read more
Here they are: San Diego’s most anticipated new restaurants of 2019
Nearly three dozen new restaurant, bar and food hall concepts are coming to San Diego County in 2019. Here’s a look at some of the major new projects. Animae, Downtown In the spring, the Puffer Malarkey Collective will open this upscale Asian-inspired restaurant on...
read more
Apple says it will establish a new location in San Diego, add 1,000 jobs over three years
Apple said Thursday that it plans to expand in San Diego, bringing 1,000 employees to the local workforce over the next three years.The Cupertino-based iPhone maker, which is in a bitter legal fight with San Diego’s Qualcomm over patent fees, made the announcement as...
read more
Big Changes to Seaport Village Plan
San Diegans would be forgiven, perhaps even applauded, for avoiding Seaport Village. Aside from the view, the 38 year-old waterfront property’s best pitch to consumers involves chain restaurants and trinket shops, seemingly only securing the approbation of cruise ship...
read more
1920’s YMCA Building Downtown to Become $80M Luxury Boutique Hotel
Decades ago, downtown’s nearly century-old YMCA building was a wartime destination for the millions of service men and women passing through the city, but by early next year, it will be reborn as a 162-room luxury boutique hotel. For the last three years, San...
read more
InterContinental returns to San Diego’s skyline
There was a time a few decades ago when the global hospitality brand, InterContinental, was a prominent fixture on San Diego’s waterfront, a forerunner to upscale lodging on the bay. Yet as quickly as the hotel chain arrived, it was gone within three years, replaced...
read more
Horton Plaza sold to real estate investment firm, will get tech-campus makeover
The one-time crown jewel of downtown, Horton Plaza, has officially been sold to real estate investment firm Stockdale Capital Partners, which seeks to return the 900,000 square-foot property to its former glory — albeit in much different form. “Our vision is to create...
read more
Construction starts on Brigantine bayfront restaurants that will replace Anthony’s
An expansive two-story restaurant complex that includes an upstairs viewing deck for the public will soon take shape on San Diego’s bayfront as construction begins on the replacement for the once popular Anthony’s Fish Grotto. Before the work even begins on the...
read more
Downtown San Diego is Booming, Here’s Why
Downtown San Diego is booming with residential and commercial development. No longer is it the once sleepy navy town boasting the best climate in the country. The weather remains beautiful year-round while the city has reinvented itself as a dynamic place to live,...
read more
Pacific Gate: Downtown San Diego’s First Ultra-Luxury Condominium In A Decade
Pacific Gate, downtown San Diego’s first ultra-luxury condominium in a decade hit the market at exactly the right time. The 41-story waterfront glass tower has changed San Diego’s skyline with edgy contemporary architecture usually found in Hong Kong or Miami....
read more
KPF adds Pacific Gate residential skyscraper to San Diego skyline
Global architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox has completed a high-rise condo building on the San Diego waterfront, with a curved glass form that stands out from the city's boxy towers. Pacific Gate by Bosa stands 41 storeys tall at the junction of Broadway and Pacific –...
read more
Terra-Cotta Comes Back as a Luxury Home Material of Choice
It’s a material associated with some of the country’s most iconic historic buildings, such as New York’s Flatiron building, Seattle’s Smith Tower skyscraper and Chicago’s famed Rookery Building. But terra-cotta, the clay-baked ceramic, went out of style as a building...
read more
Construction Starting on Manchester’s $1.5B Navy Complex Project
Developer Doug Manchester’s long-stalled $1.5 billion plan to redevelop Navy property on San Diego’s waterfront with hotels, offices and restaurants will break ground next month. Manchester Financial Group announced Thursday that it had secured the necessary financing...
read more
Puffer Malarkey to Have Presence at Pacific Gate
Pacific Gate - one of downtown San Diego's priciest condominium towers -is adding Puffer Malarkey's Animae restaurant on the ground floor of its 41-story project. The restaurant is slated to open at the end of 2018 as the anchor of the building's retail space, taking...
read more
Anthony’s demolished, Portside Pier construction next
Anthony’s Fish Grotto building, a landmark restaurant on the downtown waterfront for five decades, is gone and its replacement Portside Pier is on its way. R.E. Staite Engineering completed demolition on Wednesday of the 24,855-square-foot building at 1360 N. Harbor...
read more
Herb & Wood Team Announce New Restaurant in Downtown High-Rise
Puffer Malarkey Restaurants, the group behind Little Italy megahit Herb & Wood, is creating a new restaurant that will splash down on the downtown San Diego waterfront by the end of the year. Called Animae, it will anchor the 15,000-square-foot ground floor space...
read more
Developers Tell Condo Buyers: You Don’t Need To Bring Your Car
For luxury homeowners who want to kick the car habit, these condo developers have an alternative. At Lumina, a 42-story condo building in San Francisco, homeowners pay anywhere from $900,000 to $15 million for a luxury residence with a one-car limit per unit....
read more
Art and Soul
San Diego’s dynamic art scene is anchored by an expansive contemporary art museum, enthusiastic collectors and donors who believe in placing art in the public domain. Here’s a look at the people, places and pieces making our city a major force in the international art...
read more
Downtown’s Latest Luxury Hotel On Track To Open Next Year
Developers of San Diego’s latest luxury hotel, a 400-room InterContinental on the downtown waterfront, celebrated a construction milestone Wednesday with the completion of the highrise’s glass facade. The topping-off ceremony also marks the start of the final phase of...
read more
Super-Prime Condo Buyers’ Ship Is In
In what is billed as San Diego’s first “super prime” condominium tower, Pacific Gate is offering dwellings for the tidy sums of $1 million to $4.2 million.Typically, this is more the kind of project found in New York, San Fran-cisco, or Los Angeles. Built by Bosa...
read more
WHAT EXPERTS ARE SAYING ABOUT JAUME PLENSA’S PACIFIC SOUL
"Bosa Development is a model for insisting that daring architectural design and powerful public artworks by renowned artists are essential to the creation of functional living and gathering spaces in Southern California today. The engagement of Jaume Plensa to...
read more
Port OKs next steps for Seaport Village redo
The redevelopment of 37-year-old Seaport Village took a step forward Tuesday, when the San Diego Unified Port District board authorized an exclusive negotiating agreement with a local development team. Port spokeswoman Tanya Castenada said the developers will have 12...
read more
San Diego Could Be America’s Next Architectural Beacon
The $1.2 billion mixed-use complex will be one of the last California coastal areas to gentrify, while featuring a 480-foot observation tower that developers hope will rival the London Eye With projects underway from some of the world’s top design firms, San Diego is...
read more
How Downtown San Diego Does Luxury
Younger, Millennial-Focused Luxury is Leading the Way In the white-tablecloth sense, downtown hasn’t much succeeded. The Palm and its white-coated servers lasted only two years, LA icon Katsuya flopped, and a $400-million proposal to build a Ritz-Carlton with...
read more
Condo values catching up to single-family homes
It's a real estate question that historically has had an easy answer: Do single-family detached homes appreciate in value faster than condominiums? The standard answer has been: Of course single-family homes appreciate faster. They are what most Americans prefer to...
read more
How San Diego International Went From ‘little airport’ to Global Stop
Speaking last month at a downtown luncheon celebrating San Diego’s first nonstop flight to Switzerland, the outgoing airport CEO took the opportunity to applaud her soon-to-be-former employer — “the little airport that could,” she called it. A decade ago, when the San...
read more
PACIFIC GATE BY BOSA REACHES FIFTY-PERCENT SOLD MILESTONE
Downtown San Diego is expected to grow exponentially over the next decade and the city is meeting the demand with more than 10,000 planned residential units in the pipeline. Development of new parks, hotels, retail space and cultural offerings also are coming to...
read more
JAUME PLENSA SELECTS PACIFIC GATE HIGH-RISE FOR HIS NEXT WEST COAST PUBLIC INSTALLATION
Jaume Plensa, best known for monumental sculptures in public spaces across international destinations from Chicago to Venice, Italy, has unveiled the rendering of his first Downtown San Diego public installation entitled Pacific Soul that will be on display in the...
read more
Pacific Paradise
Pacific Gate by Bosa has become the standard for luxury living in San Diego with alluring waterfront views and most recently, by bringing renowned artist Jaume Plensa to install his next public sculpture, Pacific Soul, in its plaza. The piece is Plensa's most...
read more
Public art component added to San Diego’s Pacific Gate development by KPF
A new public art installation by Jaume Plensa, the artist behind the Crown Fountain in Chicago’s Millennium Park, has been commissioned to adorn a plaza at the foot of the Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects (KPF)-designed Pacific Gate development in San Diego. The...
read more
Dezeen’s top 10 Skyscrapers of 2016
Kicking off our review of 2016, architecture editor Jessica Mairs looks back at 10 skyscrapers that have bent the rules in the past year, ranging from a triangular tower in New York to a Lego-like Singapore tower and the world's second-tallest building. Via 57 West,...
read more
Hundreds of new downtown rentals approved
Get used to a skyline filled with construction cranes. The downtown housing boom looks like it’ll continue for the next six years. Civic San Diego, the city’s downtown development review agency, reviewed seven projects with 1,650 apartments Wednesday — possibly a...
read more
Why Bay Area Tech Companies Are Moving to San Diego
With more than 400 startups launched annually for the last two years, San Diego County now ranks in the top 10 metro areas nationally for startups and fourth statewide—behind Los Angeles, Santa Clara and San Francisco. The county is No. 1 in California for life...
read more
JAUME PLENSA SELECTS PACIFIC GATE FOR NEXT WEST COAST PUBLIC INSTALLATION
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bosa Development today announced that Jaume Plensa, best known for monumental sculptures in public spaces across international destinations from Chicago to Venice, Italy, is creating a public installation entitled Pacific Soul that will be...
read more
City Council Oks $400M Ritz-Carlton Project
San Diego’s first Ritz-Carlton Hotel, a Whole Foods grocery, housing for all income groups and offices were approved Tuesday by the City Council in what promises to be the biggest, most expensive and densest mixed-use building in the county. “This is exactly what we...
read more
Sky High in California
Architecturally Intriguing with exquisitely designed-interiors, brimming with extravagant amenities and twenty- four-hour services, and boasting exceptional views of the cities that they inhabit, luxury high rise buildings are not only offering the obvious—a place to...
read more
Port projects carrying out district’s 50-year vision
San Diego’s waterfront is facing a dramatic makeover as a result of key decisions by the port board in the last nine months. Most recently, the San Diego Unified Port District commissioners approved OliverMcMillan and Sunroad Enterprises to redevelop the eastern part...
read more
San Diego: Developers aim to meet demand with new downtown homes
The collection of bleak city blocks between Seventh and Eighth avenues in downtown San Diego is mostly lined with neglected low-rise commercial buildings and dilapidated warehouses. It is a far cry from the city's beachfront communities such as Del Mar and La Jolla,...
read more
Modern Luxury Amenities Heaven
Set to open in 2017, the newest San Diego waterfront luxury highrise includes benefits like: chef concierge service, an extensive luxury car fleet, and a private boat share. |
read more
Downtown Construction Nears Record Levels
If the crop of construction cranes downtown signals boom times are back, take a look at Civic San Diego’s latest count. The downtown planning agency reports 27 projects under construction with many more approved or planned. “Looking back historically, it’s probably...
read more
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...
read more
San Diego called 8th finest big city to live in
At least one study finds San Diego way ahead of Los Angeles. A new ranking from WalletHub puts San Diego eighth nationally as the best large city in which to live, while L.A. ranked 38th. But let’s not pat ourselves on the back too vigorously. San Diego ranked 30th...
read more
San Diego Tribune: Whole Foods OK’d for East Village
A $400 million highrise development that promises to elevate the stature of East Village and deliver San Diego its first Ritz Carlton hotel received final approval Wednesday from the city’s downtown planning agency. Barring an appeal to the San Diego Planning...
read more
San Diego Amongst Fastest Growing Cities
MSA: San Diego-Carlsbad, CA 2015 Population growth rate: 1.29{49c87dfadd73b07598bb34139e312048ea300bdb6cde86b09181f467ad07d209} 2016 (Projected) pop. growth rate: 1.17{49c87dfadd73b07598bb34139e312048ea300bdb6cde86b09181f467ad07d209} Job growth...
read more
Seaport Village Makeover: Hotels, towers, beaches
Seaport Village, the quaint 36-year-old specialty shopping center on the downtown waterfront, would get a radical makeover under six different concepts that will be unveiled to the public Monday. At the request of the San Diego Unified Port District, which controls...
read more
San Diego’s Catherine Deneuve
When the first words you hear from an architect describing a project in the making are “This is a different cat,” you sense that you are about to be entertained. Such was my impression at a private preview of downtown’s Pacific Gate residential high-rise. “This could...
read more
Can building design make you healthy?
After decades of building car-centric suburbs, developers now realize they may be partly responsible for a rising tide of obesity. Now, led by the Urban Land Institute think tank in Washington, D.C., they’re pivoting to “healthy places” where walkability, parks,...
read more
Transformation of “America’s Finest City”
New York City-based firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates is making its mark among San Diego real estate, celebrating the opening of Pacific Gate, a 215-unit condominium tower. Built in collaboration with Chris Dikeakos Architects, this 41-story residential project...
read more
Waterfront park opening with a splash
Nolen dreamed it, Marston campaigned for it, President Franklin D. Roosevelt praised it. And now San Diego County has it: A 12-acre bayfront park, complete with interactive fountains, children's playground, low-water-using gardens and expanses of lawn and lookout...
read more
The 10 Most Influential Developers
The recession was a bummer for just about all of us. However, developers could argue that they took it on the chin among the worst. Prior to the slow-down, a number of big projects were either going up or on the drawing board. Then … Big projects couldn’t have come...
read more
Lane Field hotels open with ‘Cheery Yellow’ flourish
Six decades after Lane Field baseball park became a parking lot, a $375 million redevelopment officially opened its first phase on San Diego’s downtown waterfront Thursday with promises of much more to come. The 400-unit, 19-story Marriott SpringHill Suites-Residence...
read more
Sky’s the Limit
The Vancouver-based developer, whose luxury properties dot the West Coast, is about to change the S.D. skyline permanently with Pacific Gate (bosadev.com), downtown's tallest residential rower. The 4l-story project, which curves at the top like a nautilus shell and...
read more
The Sky Meets the Sand at These Waterfront High-Rise Condos in San Diego
Perhaps the most coveted feature of the new 41-story Pacific Gate luxury condominium complex in San Diego, Calif., is its stunning views of the Pacific Ocean and city skyline. Designed by architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox, with interiors by Hirsch Bedner Associates,...
read more
Bosa’s Buys Puts it in Position Downtown
San Diego - Downtown San Diego's residential condominium boom of the early 2000s is not expected to make a comeback anytime soon. But Bosa Development, a prolific producer during that period, appears to be gearing up for the next wave. Between 2000 and 2008, the...
read more
Echo Boom
From Little Italy to East Village, downtown San Diego continues to Witness a steady post-recession stream Of new building projects, especially apartments geared to the rising tide Of millennial-age residents 35 and younger who prefer to live and work in vibrant urban...
read more
Pacific Gate Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Pacific Gate is designed to be a landmark at the gateway to the downtown core, to enhance pedestrian life, and to be a great addition not only to the neighborhood but also to the city of San Diego. The unique curved glass tower soars up from ground towards the sky to...
read more
New “Super Prime” Building Going up Downtown
SAN DIEGO – Over the last couple of decades, plenty of luxurious high-rise condo and apartment buildings have been built in downtown San Diego. But nothing like what’s rising in the sky right now at the corner of Broadway and Pacific Coast Highway. Right now, it looks...
read more
Penthouses Rise Over the Pacific
A 41 STORY LUXURY BUILDING is on the rise. Boasting a screening room, a swimming pool and a boat-share program, its 215 units will soon be going on the market at prices starting at $1.4 million. The building is downtown San Diego, an area with a seedy past. The median...
read more
PROJECTS IN DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO’S PIPELINE VALUED AT $6.4B
Downtown SD has 63 projects valued at more than $6.4B under construction or in the pipeline, with expected completion between 2016 and 2020. This is equal to about 40{49c87dfadd73b07598bb34139e312048ea300bdb6cde86b09181f467ad07d209} of the valuation of total...
read more
Downtown: $6.4B development juggernaut
If you’ve noticed a few more construction cranes on the downtown skyline, your eyes don’t deceive. San Diego’s Centre City has more than $6.4 billion in 63 projects under construction, approved or under review — an amount equal to more than 40 percent of the...
read more
Brigantine wins Anthony’s site
Anthony’s Fish Grotto, a 69-year tradition on San Diego Bay, lost out to Brigantine Restaurants Tuesday as the San Diego Unified Port District voted for change on a key site on the downtown waterfront. The port board voted 4-2 -- with one member not participating --...
read more
Buy a Luxury Condo, Give a Slum Dweller a New Home
The business model is simple in theory: Real estate developers donate a portion of their marketing budget to the nonprofit, and then the nonprofit creates local factories that build low-cost homes in the developing world. Each home, which can cost about $5,000 in a...
read more
InterContinental returning to San Diego
A 19-story hotel planned for the southern portion of Lane Field will mark the return of this hotel brand, last here in the 1980’s. (John Portman and Associates) San Diego will see the return of long absent InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, with the development of...
read more
San Diego Celebrates Completion of Waterfront Improvement Project
The Port of San Diego, the City of San Diego, and Civic San Diego officially marked the grand opening of the North Embarcadero Visionary Plan Phase 1 in a public celebration held November 15, 2014. A community event that featured strolling musicians, performers, food,...
read more