What to Expect With the Waterfront RFP

Merrifield: “This has to be great for San Diegans, for the folks who live here, but great for visitors as well. If San Diegans love it, visitors will, too.”

SAN DIEGO—Local news sources recently reported that the Unified Port of San Diego has released six proposals for developments targeting 70 acres of prime Downtown San Diego waterfront property, including the current site of the iconic Seaport Village . Port officials held a public open house on June 13 and 14 at the San Diego Convention Center to display and discuss the proposals, which included a variety of hotel, entertainment and retail uses . A Port of San Diego statement said the district will be accepting comments on the proposals through June 28, with more information at portofsandiego.org. The Port is “determined to make this as open and transparent a process as possible,” chairman Marshall Merrifield tells GlobeSt.com. We spoke exclusively with Merrifield about the next steps in the RFP process for the waterfront’s development and how development in this sector of Downtown San Diego meshes with the rest the submarket. GlobeSt.com: Please explain the next steps in the RFP process for the waterfront’s redevelopment. Merrifield: We’re determined to make this as open and transparent a process as possible, as we always do, but there’s a lot of interest in this so we’re taking a couple of extra steps as well. One big new step was the interview the developers had with the public on June 13 and 14. We promised that once we qualified the developers, we would interview them, and so did the public. They were game, and they were really pleased to participate. We had 1,200 people come through and ask questions to understand what these six proposals are about. Developers, in return, got a lot of great feedback from members of the public and residents. Our next step will be a public meeting of the commission on July 13 at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront . It will be the first time the commission will talk about these projects. We always have our real estate discussion meetings in public. Each of the developers for the six proposals will do a formal 20-minute summary of their proposals, followed by public comment, and then the commissioners will start sharing their thoughts and decide what the next steps will be. A week before that, there will be a meeting, and the staff will release its analysis of the economic features asked for in the original RFP, and then there will be some review of the integrated planning principals that we asked developers to address. We’ve spent two years working on this to create a template of things we look for when we develop land, including public access so that everyone can enjoy the beautiful San Diego harbor and continuation of activities on the water. We want to do more with the water, and that’s part of the opportunity: making the roads end at the Bay so you can get there or creating bike paths and promenades. they’ll do an analysis of those things and away we go. Our goal is by the end of the year to have our land uses and our partners identified so we can go forward with negotiations and into next year create a deal.

The San Diego Bay waterfront area presents a unique development opportunity for the Port.

GlobeSt.com: What would be the ideal scenario for redevelopment of this site? Merrifield: I will hold on my opinions on this until we meet. We really want the public to be part of our discussion every step of the way. This has to be great for San Diegans, for the folks who live here, but great for visitors as well. If San Diegans love it, then visitors will, too. GlobeSt.com: How does the Port envision the redeveloped site meshing with the rest of Downtown San Diego? Merrifield: There absolutely is a synergy here. It gives us a chance to think about important topics like mobility and public enjoyment of the waterfront with the wide variety of other amenities that go with our visitor-serving industry. With our cruise and Convention Center businesses picking up—we will have 70% occupancy at the Convention Center this year—there’s a wonderful mix of exciting and fun activities going on, but it needs to be enjoyable to participate in and not a challenge. This gives us the chance to do some good urban planning, and that’s really the focus of our efforts in the next year to two years. GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about this RFP process? Merrifield: This is the public’s land, and we are privileged and honored that so many qualifying private developers would participate with us in creating something great for San Diego. Isn’t it amazing that with a great public/private partnership you can create a great public benefit and still make it pencil without raising taxes? We are lucky to create that chance to make something special. We have 800 tenants and subtenants around the land the Port manages, and the longer-term ground leases they hold induce private-money investment. It’s important for the developers in this process to offer them potential benefits while asking them to create a public benefit, and lengthy land leases create that kind of incentive.