Two very different proposals for a new San Diego City Hall are now on the table.
One offers the city an iconic sail-like building with wind turbines at the top, council chambers atop a glass “mesa” and about 2 million square feet of private development on the surrounding blocks. The complex would generate its own energy through wind and solar panels.
Artist's rendering for the proposed City Hall design by Gerding Edlen of Portland.
Artist's rendering for the proposed City Hall design by Hines Corp. of Houston.
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The other: No private development, just a new city office building and a four-story glass City Hall where the council would meet in view of passersby on the street.
The two developers vying to rebuild San Diego's four-block Civic Center complex downtown will be unveiling their proposals at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
The smaller firm, Gerding Edlen of Portland, is the firm proposing the grander scale. Spokesman Tom Cody says his company thinks the mix of private offices, housing and possibly a hotel can be viable if it is built over seven to 12 years.
“This is really about vibrancy. How to take this anchor of the city and leverage it into a more meaningful district,” Cody said.
International giant Hines Corp., based in Houston, is billing itself as the more conservative, low-risk bet for a city still struggling with its finances.
“It provides the city with the most certainty. They know what their costs are going to be,” said Paul Twardowski of Hines. “The city should not be entering risky ventures right now. The city should be taking conservative approaches to save money.”
No financial details were released, just artist renderings of buildings and site plans.
The chairman of the Centre City Development Corp., the nonprofit city agency overseeing the process, said he hopes the numbers can made public over the next week or so. They were held back so CCDC can request any revisions needed without one developer tipping its hand to the other.
Of the competitors, Hines is the known quantity in San Diego, as it served as developer on the downtown ballpark project for Padres owner John Moores.
Its resume boasts huge civic projects around the world. The Hines team includes big-name architects Pelli Clarke Pelli, but a Hines official says an iconic project isn't the goal here.
The underdog is Gerding Edlen, a newcomer to San Diego. Gerding bills itself as the company whose heart is “green.” A big dog in Portland, the firm has helped redraw that city's downtown waterfront, but San Diego would be among its largest projects.
More than 3,200 city employees now work in 1 million square feet spread across eight downtown buildings, four of which the city owns.
City officials want to demolish the city-owned towers and construct enough office space, about 700,000 square feet, to house all downtown city workers there. It could save the city at least $13 million a year in leases.
Also, the city's buildings have maintenance problems, such as asbestos and seismic issues, that would cost $112 million to fix and bring up to date, the city estimates.
Mayor Jerry Sanders has said he does not want the Civic Center project to move forward if it costs the city more than the existing leases and maintenance would cost.
