Carlsbad Raceway Business Park Receives Green Light

CARLSBAD, CA-The City of Carlsbad has cleared the way for a massive mixed-use project at the Carlsbad Raceway Business Park. On tap are plans for a master-planned community that will count 1.5 million sf of office and industrial space at buildout. The project will be built on 147.1 acres and is set for multiple phases over several years.Being built on what was formerly the Carlsbad Raceway, the commercial site is being developed to keep up with the growing residential projects already under construction. “More than 5,150 residential units are approved or under construction in Carlsbad with another 1,500 already in the planning stages,” says Kevin Hill, vice president of leasing with H.G. Fenton Company, which is the project’s master planner.The tentative map, which includes a combination of speculative industrial/R&D product, owner-user lot sales and build to-suits for lease or sale, received unanimous approval from the City of Carlsbad. Officials with H.G. Fenton Company are to begin grading on the project. “Approximately 50% – or 72 acres – of the site will be retained as open space, with the rest planned for low-rise campus-style development with the extensive use of landscaping and easy walk-up parking,” says Hill. As part of the initial plan, H.G. Fenton will also provide improvements to the Carlsbad, including the widening of 1,600 feet of Palomar Airport Road and an extension of Melrose Drive between Palomar Airport Road and the City of Vista.San Diego-based H.G. Fenton Company acquired the Carlsbad Raceway site from Hudson Advisors in September of this year for $16.25 million. Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial’s Dennis Visser, Louay Alsadek and Mark Emerick represented both buyer and seller in the deal and will also handle the marketing of the new project. Visser says H.G. Fenton Company has a track record for offering “added value to companies who want facilities that can meet their unique needs including the flexibility for future expansion.”The company has been in a strong buy mode this year, particularly in the Carlsbad area. The Carlsbad Raceway acquisition is H.G. Fenton Company’s second buy in Carlsbad this year and the sixth property it owns in the area. Earlier this year, the company purchased 54 acres in Carlsbad and will develop the parcel along with Newport National Corp. On tap for that project are 400,000 sf of office and R&D space. In all, the company’s industrial portfolio counts more than 3 million sf in San Diego County. Additionally, it owns nine apartment communities with a total of 2,484 units in key areas throughout the county.”The available supply of office space in the North County area, and in Carlsbad in particular, has been diminishing due to limited new construction and steadily increasing demand for space,” says Hill.