Construction is complete at Kensington Park Plaza, and most of the residential and commercial space at the project has already been leased, the developer said.
Allard Jansen Associates Architects of Solana Beach designed the $1.6 million project at the northwest corner of Adams Avenue and Marlborough Drive in the Kensington business district.
Jansen, who is also the lead general partner of owner Kensington Partnership, said he designed the mixed-use center to blend into the existing neighborhood architectural style.
Many of those properties were built in the 1920s and 1930s when the neighborhood was still on the outskirts of San Diego, and they feature Craftsman and Spanish-style architecture, he said.
“Because I live in the area, I knew that site had been vacant for years and people were dreaming about what they were going to do there,” Jansen said. “There was a rumor a few years ago that someone was going to put a strip shopping center on the site and we didn’t want that to happen, so we ended up buying the property.”
The 23,000-square-foot project provides about 6,500 square feet of retail and office space on the ground floor and 11 live-work lofts on the second floor. Parking spaces and secure garages are also on the site, he added.
The project, which has a ground-level plaza in front, also has storefronts that open onto the street. Jansen said the design allowed him to create two corner retail stores.
“A lot of the rock detailing on the building was inspired by the existing stonework at the Ken Cinema and Kensington Grill across the street,” Jansen said.
He added his firm is designing two projects in a similar new urbanism style. One of the projects is in Solana Beach and the other in San Diego. He said he couldn’t disclose at this point who his clients were or the precise locations of the projects.
Meanwhile, Douglas E. Barnhart Inc. of San Diego has finished the Salt Creek Industrial Center in Chula Vista’s EastLake Business Park. Barnhart said the project is one of Chula Vista’s largest industrial developments in over a decade.
The 170,000-square-foot, two-building concrete tilt-up project featured a 2.5-acre foundation pour, Barnhart said.
Major subcontractors on the project included Bergelectric Corp. of Escondido; De La Rosa Construction of San Diego; Quality Reinforcing of Poway; Rocky Coast Framing of San Diego; and South Bay Welding of National City, Barnhart said.
In Kearny Mesa, crews from Reno Contracting of San Diego are under way on the two-building campus of National University at the corner of Ruffin Road and Innovation Way.
Dave Armstrong, director of pre-construction for Reno, said one of the buildings is 64,400 square feet and will be used for classrooms.
The adjacent library building is 40,000 square feet. Both are concrete tilt-ups with steel roof joists and in the center between the buildings is a curved bow truss, Armstrong said.
In the desert at Imperial, Nielsen Dillingham Builders of San Diego is nearing completion on the new 54,000-square-foot Waggoner Elementary School. Penny Lawlor, a Nielsen Dillingham spokeswoman, said the $8.8 million project is due to be completed in time for the start of the new school year in the fall.
The project includes 18 classrooms, a full kitchen and cafeteria, she said.
Meanwhile, Rhule General Contracting of Santee has started remodeling for San Diego National Bank at 1642 San Marcos Blvd. in San Marcos; 16789 Bernardo Center Drive in Rancho Bernardo; and 2755 Navajo Road in El Cajon.
Laura Marzahl, a spokeswoman for the builder, said the value of the contract was $850,000.
