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Monday, Mar 18, 2024
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Development Aims for Complete Community

Housing construction in San Diego is still far below where it was in the housing bubble years, but smack dab in the center of Mission Valley there’s a project under way by Sudberry Properties that will eventually create nearly 5,000 new homes and redefine what smart urban growth should be.

Called Civita (a combination of the words “civic” and “vitality” to elicit a sense of a lively community), the master-planned project is sprouting upon 230 acres off of Friars Road between Mission Center Road and Interstate 805, on land that for more than 80 years had been used as a rock quarry.

The essence of Civita is a result of what regional and city policymakers aimed for when they amended land-use laws that encouraged higher density development closer to where people work, and which incorporates commercial and retail components, with the stated goal of reducing traffic on roads.

“When we started in 2002 was when the City of Villages was being developed and approved (by the City of San Diego), and we really modeled the design and what we were trying to do with those concepts … That included a mix of uses, including public facilities and park space and civic spaces,” said Marco Sessa, senior vice president of San Diego-based Sudberry Properties, the project’s master developer.

Creating a Small Town Feel

The goal for Civita was to blend several housing types, both for-sale and rentals, and make them available at different price points. The project also includes a 20-acre park in the center, and a total of 67 acres of open space to evoke a small town feel that encourages residents to walk and interact with each other.

For example, some of the townhomes’ front doors come with stoops similar to those in some East Coast cities. The arrangement allows for more “eyes on the street,” and provides a greater sense of safety for families and children playing near their houses, Sessa said.

In addition to 4,780 condominiums, apartments and affordable housing, Civita includes about 1 million square feet of commercial space split between retail and office; a civic center with an amphitheater and museum; and loads of upgraded amenities intended to make people smile and give residents a greater sense of belonging, he said.

The origins of the project began in 2002 when the land’s owners, the Grant family, entered into an agreement with Sudberry. Conducting all the various studies and obtaining all the necessary permits took about seven years. The project’s master plan received final approval in October 2008.

Construction on the project’s first phase began in November in the southwestern part of the site, including 200 condominiums by Shea Homes, and 306 apartments by Sudberry, which specializes in mixed-use town center communities, called Circa 37.

Paul Barnes, division president of Shea Homes, said of the 10 master-planned communities his company is actively engaged in constructing in San Diego, Civita occupies most of his thoughts. “When I go to bed every night, Civita is what I think about,” he says.

The company is building two types of housing at Civita: 73 row townhomes called skyLoft, and 127 condos farther in the site’s interior called socialGarden. The prices start in the low $400,000s to a high of about $535,000.

The first homes should be completed by late November and opened in the following month, Barnes said. The apartments should be finished near the end of this year and begin leasing in February, Sessa said.

Interest, especially since Shea opened a sales office on Friars Road, is high because the mix of Civita’s housing types and price range appeals to so many groups, he said.

“Here you’ve got a location advantage of downtown … but ultimately you’ll have a like living environment but one that will have a housing type that is probably more appropriate not only for newlyweds but for young families … or an empty nester who wants to be in a location where they don’t have to drive 30 minutes to get to some of the great aspects that people love about San Diego.”

Borre Winckel, president and chief executive of the San Diego Building Industry Association, said Civita is indicative of the type of residential projects that will become more prevalent because of the lack of land in the region and the influence of policymakers on future development.

“This isn’t the end of tract housing, but it will be functionally smaller,” Winckel said. The cost to build a home is too high compared with what buyers can spend in this market due to a glut of foreclosed properties. Some distressed sales of recently-built homes are discounted 20 percent or more below what new homes are selling for in the same area, he said.

Civita, Winckel said, is a harbinger of things to come in San Diego, where in the future some two-thirds of the homes being built will be condominiums, and the remainder will be the suburban, detached variety.

A Good Sign?

As for the current housing slump that resulted in some 45,000 construction workers losing their jobs, and several large builders exiting the region, Winckel said there may be some light.

“At the end of the first seven months of this year (July) we had some 3,400 housing permits issued,” he said. “We’re hoping to reach between 4,500 and 5,000 for the year which would give us a three-year high going back to 2009.”

It’s still far below where the region used to be. A normal year for San Diego was 12,000 to 15,000 residential units, he said.

The economy has demonstrated a few signs things may be turning around, and once things become clearer, the demand for new housing may spike up rapidly, Winckel said. “If consumer confidence returns, that can turn on a dime, and when it happens, I believe it will happen fast, but then again, you and I could be having this same conversation a year from now.”

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