EL CAJON , The city and a developer are still working on details of a development agreement for a two-acre site Downtown, officials of both sides said.
When the proposed mixed-used project was announced in August, the developers anticipated starting work early this year. However, hazardous waste cleanup at the site still needs to be done, and the fine points of the development agreement are still being worked out, an El Cajon city official said.
“Two of the three original developers couldn’t wait for the land to be cleaned up,” said David Cooksey, redevelopment manager for El Cajon.
The land is on the southwest corner of Magnolia and Main streets.
Daryl Priest of El Cajon-based Priest Development is the sole remaining partner in The Corners at Main Street I & II that’s still involved as a principal. Allan Royster of Royster Development Inc. and Perry Dealy of Dealy Development, both of San Diego, were the other two principals in the original partnership.
Dealy said while he has withdrawn from the partnership, he would be acting as a consultant to Priest to help him get the project started.
No purchase price has been determined for the land, but the partners said at the time of the original project announcement that they were willing to buy it at its appraised value.
Cleanup of the site still needs to be done, however. Cooksey said in addition to soil contaminated by petroleum products from an old gas station, there also is soil spoiled by waste from a dry-cleaning establishment that left the site several decades ago.
“The contamination levels are much less than originally anticipated,” Cooksey said.
He anticipated only 12 feet of soil would need to be removed from two small sections on the west side of the parcel. The work should be done by the end of May, he added. The city will pay a contractor remove the soil, but nobody has been selected yet, he said.
Priest has proposed building 12,000 square feet of ground floor retail on the Main Street side of the property with 5,000 square feet of residential rental lofts above. About 28 row houses would be built on the south side of the property facing W. Douglas Avenue, Dealy said.
Priest recently completed Granite Hills Glen, a 100-house planned unit development on Granite Hills Drive; Friendly Terrace, a 65-home development on East Main Street; and Linway Estates, a 19-house project on Lincoln Avenue, all in El Cajon.
