Pierce: ““This important milestone moves us one step closer to making SDSU West a reality for San Diego State University and our city as a whole.”
SAN DIEGO—The SDSU West initiative has received more than 106,000 signatures, which have been submitted to and verified by the San Diego City clerk as sufficient to send the measure before voters this year. The City Clerk will present the certified initiative to the City Council, who may then approve the initiative by placing it before voters on an upcoming ballot.
“This important milestone moves us one step closer to making SDSU West a reality for San Diego State University and our city as a whole,” said Fred Pierce—a member of the Friends of SDSU steering committee, chairman of the Fowler College of Business Administration at SDSU and president and CEO of Pierce Education Properties, an investor, developer and manager of student-housing projects nationwide—in a prepared statement.
As GlobeSt.com reported in September 2017, the Friends of SDSU, an independent group of alumni, community and business leaders, launched the SDSU West initiative to provide what they perceived to be a needed alternative for the existing SDCCU (formerly Qualcomm) Stadium site, Under the preliminary plan for the site, which was unveiled at that time, the initiative authorizes the sale of the site to SDSU and directs the university to develop a plan for it. In addition to requiring adequate traffic infrastructure and mitigations consistent with the California Environmental Quality Act, SDSU West provides voters with the power to guarantee a permanent River Park.
“SDSU West is critical to provide the university the ability to grow for years to come,” said community leader Laurie Black in the statement. She added that the initiative will help ensure that future San Diego business and community leaders have available space in this market.”
In June 2017, Pierce told GlobeSt.com that he was speaking out as the voice against the SoccerCity Plan proposed by developer FS Investors, as well as against using an initiative as a method to decide this measure. Pierce said at the time that he was advocating instead “a public RFP process as every piece of significant public land should be subject to. Let's stipulate the criteria for the RFP. The City Council would require proposals to reserve 35 acres of the site for university expansion and either land for SDSU to build a stadium with related parking or a joint-use stadium that meets SDSU's requirements (all of which SDSU would pay for at the same price per acre as the winning developer). Then, the balance of the 233-acre site will be left to the creativity of developers to suggest what they would like to see. Let's see creativity and competition to produce what's best for the region.”
According to Councilmember Barbara Bry, each year, SDSU generate $5.67 billion of economy impact. “It is critical we continue to grow this powerful economic engine.”
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Carrie Rossenfeld
Carrie Rossenfeld is a reporter for the San Diego and Orange County markets on GlobeSt.com and a contributor to Real Estate Forum. She was a trade-magazine and newsletter editor in New York City before moving to Southern California to become a freelance writer and editor for magazines, books and websites. Rossenfeld has written extensively on topics including commercial real estate, running a medical practice, intellectual-property licensing and giftware. She has edited books about profiting from real estate and has ghostwritten a book about starting a home-based business.
