SAN DIEGO—San Diego makes a strong case for Amazon locating its second headquarters in East Otay Mesa, but even without it, companies will be drawn to this submarket, Chesnut Properties' founder and principal Lee Chesnut told RealShare San Diego attendees Wednesday. During the panel session “The Future of San Diego CRE,” Chesnut said San Diego has answered Amazon's RFP for a second headquarters with a proposal for locating it in South County's Eastern Otay Mesa submarket, which he called “the next mega region for CRE.”

Moderator Brandon Sudweeks, president of Coldwell Banker Commercial SC, said San Diego is pushing for higher density and asked the panelists about the region's challenges in achieving this. Cybele Thompson, director of real estate assets for the City of San Diego, said among the goals of the Housing SD plan are to improve affordability, create density, produce a housing-inventory report and realize community-plan updates. She added that regulation relief to speed up the development process and reduce development fees in areas that need housing is key, along with a more streamlined permitting process, and that the city is working on a middle-income density program to help those in the 80%-AMI category. “There's a shifting attitude toward density and mixed-use versus slow growth,” which had previously been popular, she said.

Sudweeks pressed her on the challenges to density, and Thompson said NIMBYism is a major roadblock. However, “It takes strength on the part of local politicians and elected officials to stand up to communities” and point out the ways that density and development help communities,” and this is beginning to happen, she said.