WASHINGTON: The San Diego Unified Port District board paved the way for two local, well-connected developers, OliverMcMillin and Sunroad Enteprises, Thursday to redevelop the rental car lots and remaining vacant land on Harbor Island. If ultimately approved by the California Coastal Commission, 57 acres of under-developed land and water could contain new hotels, marinas, shops and restaurants, “blue-tech” business space and manmade beaches, recreational facilities and open space to be built over the next decade.
The district’s staff had recommended OliverMcMillan to develop the entire 44 acre site, plus 13 acres of water, opposite Lindbergh Field. The company had proposed to spend $978 million on 1,500 hotel rooms, 271,100 square feet of retail, restaurant and office space, and man-made canals. The port stood to receive up to $10.5 million in rent annually after four years, about three times what the rental car companies have paid. But Sunroad Chairman Aaron Feldman told the port commissioners Thursday that his company had spent $2 million and 11 years trying to develop hotels on a nine-acre portion of the man-made peninsula.
“It would be unfair for the port to take one element and give it to someone else after working so many years,” Feldman said. His plan, “Bayside Celebration,” laid out by his son Uri at the meeting, called for about 1,025 hotel rooms, 346,000 square feet of offices, shops and restaurants plus two bridges spanning the marina. The port could have expected nearly $8 million in annual rent after eight years.
