The United States Navy has selected a development team led by San Diego-based Manchester Financial Group and McLean, Virgina-based Edgemoor Infrastructure and Real Estate to replace its obsolete NAVWAR facilities and remake the rest of the 70.3-acre military campus in San Diego’s Midway District with private development.
The variety brings to an end a tightly controlled festival that has lasted more than a year for the sprawling property, which is made up of two giant plots on either side of the Pacific Highway.
The parties hope to soon conclude an exclusive negotiation agreement, or ENA, which will open the door for the first time in the long procedure to a discussion between the federal company and its new partners. The contract will also define the responsibilities necessary to complete a transaction.
“We’ve been following this for a long time. We had a successful assignment with the Navy in the previous building, the Broadway assignment,” Ted Eldredge, chairman and chief executive of Manchester Financial, told the Union-Tribune. opportunity to expand a key asset in San Diego. “
Owned by the Navy since the mid-1990s, Point Loma Naval Base, an Old Town complex known as NAVWAR, houses the military divisions of the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command and the Pacific Naval Information Warfare Center. The teams make up a combined 5,000 full-time contract cybersecurity professionals who lately work in World War II-era hangars that are said to be beyond their useful life.
In November 2022, the federal government launched a tender for long-term leasing and property progression. The Navy is providing the land in exchange for “in-kind” consideration, and plans to exchange the land for new NAVWAR facilities, known in the tender as 1. 43 million square feet of replacement administrative, laboratory and warehouse space, and 3,208 parking spaces.
The Navy’s facilities, according to the tender document, will be built first and without authorization from the agency.
“This is another step toward beneficial end results for NAVWAR and the City of San Diego,” NAVWAR Rear Adm. Commander Doug Small said in a statement. “We want safe, secure, and modern services for our world-class community. “To keep up with the growing demands of our missions: to deliver and maintain data warfare capabilities for the fleet and our partners around the world. “
The winning Manchester/Edgemoor team consists of the two lead firms, which will take a 50-50 ownership stake.
Manchester, a major hotel and advertising promotion company chaired by Doug Manchester, was also awarded the 12-acre Navy Broadway complex in 2006. As part of this agreement, the developer erected a waterfront office building for the Southwest Naval Region, the Naval Facilities Engineering Command. . Southwest Reserve Component and Southwest Naval Region Command. But it sold most of the lease in 2020 to property developer IQHQ.
Founded in 2001, Edgemoor is a subsidiary of Clark Construction and specializes in public-private partnerships. The company, for example, last year completed the $1. 5 billion, 1. 1 million-square-foot terminal at Kansas City International Airport. the $513 million Long Beach Civic Center, which included a new City Hall, a port administration building, and a library. The NAVWAR assignment is Edgemoor’s first assignment in San Diego.
The task managers also hired Clark Construction as the designer-builder for the task. The structures company has served as a general contractor for many high-profile construction in the city, Snapdragon Stadium and Petco Park.
HKS Architects, which helped design UC San Diego’s five-building Theater District Life and Learning District, is designing the new government facilities. The HOK planning company manages the personal progression master plan for the project. And San Diego. es-based Dealy Development Inc guilty of securing rights.
The Manchester/Edgemoor team also plans to bring on three multifamily developers, Eldredge said.
“The team we have is pretty incredible. Everyone is very passionate about this task and the construction that the Navy needs,” Eldredge said. “I think it’s done and we have artistic tactics to put together the monetary package. . . . . . It’s not an easy puzzle to solve. “
Although the main points are sparse, the Manchester/Edgemoor team planned to turn the NAVWAR complex into a full-fledged mini-city, with new government facilities, lots of housing, offices, a few hundred hotel rooms, parks, a tram stop, and a collection. Department stores and high-end restaurants that could help the task compete with downtown San Diego as a popular destination, Eldredge said.
The team presented a variety of mixed-use concepts that have not been publicly disclosed, but have been informed through the opportunities for progress considered in the Navy’s draft 2021 environmental impact statement, said Greg Geisen, allocation manager for NAVWAR’s revitalization effort. .
The environmental report, required through the National Environmental Policy Law, has been suspended pending the final results of the bidding process. It envisioned an overall progression of 19. 6 million feet with up to 10,000 residential units, two hotels, and millions of feet of advertising and retail area spread across 109 buildings, with towers extending up to 350 feet high. The lower-density option studied in the report includes 4,400 residential units, a hotel and 106 buildings in total, some up to 240 feet tall.
“The Navy decided on an exclusive negotiating partner based on the proposals submitted,” Geisen said. “We believe this proponent was the most qualified and the most productive, meeting the Navy’s needs in terms of concepts and designs. This does not mean that we have approved any of those concepts or designs at this time, as we have not entered into negotiations with them.
The proposed land change is modeled after the 2006 agreement between the company and Manchester Financial Group for the Navy Broadway complex. The developer secured a 99-year lease for the 12-acre assets between Pacific Highway and North Harbor Drive in exchange for the structure of a new administrative headquarters for the Navy. The 17-story skyscraper, completed in 2020 and now known as Navy Building One, built and financed entirely through Manchester Financial for an undisclosed amount.
The Navy has remained silent about the existing real estate bankruptcy, the largest in history. The other three groups that decided in April to submit full proposals have not been disclosed. Each team had to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Even with Tuesday’s announcement, a sense of secrecy persists as the public has to wait an indefinite amount of time before learning what’s in store for the NAVWAR property.
Potential progression concepts will not be made public until the Navy is in a position to resume its environmental analysis.
“ENA’s goal is for the developer to help the Navy articulate what is imaginable on the site, so that we can work with the city and other agencies to come up with concepts that meet the Navy’s desires and local desires. “Once we have concepts that are a little more articulated, we can offer them to the public. “
The reluctance to percentages of the proposed progression concepts is likely due, at least in part, to the public’s reaction to the draft Environmental Impact Statement, which included visual simulations of buildings towering over Interstate 5 and the Old City, and also interferes with perspectives from Mission Hills. The document garnered more than 1,000 comment letters. The Navy then shifted its focus and opted to find a progression partner to solidify the vision before completing environmental work.
Eldredge says the Manchester/Edgemoor team must be respectful of its neighbors and will also work throughout the city of San Diego, though federal land is exempt from local zoning restrictions.
“I wouldn’t need to hide from the federal government. We all need to do what’s most productive for San Diego,” Eldredge said. “Density is vital, but we also don’t need to isolate something. Well, we’re very susceptible to this. . . We will do our best to make everyone happy.
Environmental work, which culminates in a record of decisions, will need to be completed before a transaction can be finalized. The Navy declined to say how long the procedure would take.
Follow
Privacy PolicyTerms of UseSubscribe to Our NewslettersSite Map
Continue
MORE