54.3 F
San Diego
Tuesday, Mar 19, 2024
-Advertisement-

Coronado’s Storied Past Leads to High-Priced Homes of Today

The drive to Coronado Island across the San Diego-Coronado Bridge has to be one of the most spectacular in America.

The exit from the bridge leads to Orange Avenue, the main artery through the downtown district. It curves around past the huge Star Pine that serves as the city’s annual Christmas tree. In another few blocks, the iconic Hotel del Coronado comes into view.

Once on the island, a tour of the island’s perfectly ordered streets reveals some of San Diego’s most spectacular and historic homes. But it does little to suggest the dissention that lies within the island’s residential real estate climate.

“There is an ongoing battle all the time between the historians and conservationists who want to see all those old homes preserved and the people who want to see new development come in,” said Leslie Kilpatrick, office manager for the Willis Allen Real Estate offices in Coronado and downtown San Diego.

Coronado indeed has a storied past. In 1885 the island was just a barren rock when two businessmen from the Midwest and a banker from San Diego were rabbit hunting on the island and decided to buy it and develop a seaside resort, according to the Coronado Historical Association. The island was bought for $110,000, and in 1888 the Hotel del Coronado welcomed its first guest.

The men formed the Coronado Beach Co. and sold 350 lots in one day for a total of $110,000 or an average of $314 per lot — earning their original investment back in a day.

These first Coronado landowners would set the tone for the future development on the island. The homes were built by industrialists, admirals, a sugar magnate and a direct descendant of Sir Francis Drake. The new residents even included the editor and manager of the San Diego Union and the Evening Tribune, James MacMullen, who was at the paper from 1899 to 1933 and commissioned his house in 1914.

Along the avenues and boulevards are Colonial Revival, Craftsman, Mission Revival, Italian Renaissance, Victorian, Spanish Eclectic — everything but California tract.

Some of the most breathtaking examples of these styles are along Ocean Boulevard. Designed by some of San Diego’s most renowned architects of the time, the homes on the island are a visual treat for the architecture-obsessed.

Today, the price of entry is high; the median price for the 176 single-family homes sold in Coronado in 2013 was $1.54 million, up 11.7 percent from 2012, according to a San Diego Association of Realtors report.

Kilpatrick, who is the Realtors association’s newly elected president, said there are a limited number of these high-dollar transactions because of the lack of supply in the desirable locations.

“But I would say that what has a lot of activity and what is interesting about the Coronado market is the large number of high-dollar cash transactions,” Kilpatrick said. She said that the cash buyers are from all over, drawn to “a very desirable spot.”

Kilpatrick said the obvious draw to the region is the weather: “We’ve never had to climb in the bathtub for a tornado yet.”

A recent sale on Ocean Avenue is 919 Ocean Ave. Originally listed for $9.4 million, it sold for $8.3 million in fall 2013. Built in 2012, the home was designed by Greg Ronk of Bridgewater Custom Homes of Coronado in a classic Nantucket style. At 4,692 square feet on a small ocean front lot, Ronk built partially underground to add square footage. The result was a light-filled living space and a 2,200-bottle wine cellar, according to listing agent Ruth Ann Fisher of Del Realty in Coronado.

Please email luxury real estate items to Stephanie R. Glidden at sglidden@sdbj.com.

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-