Construction of a $100 million Scripps Ranch apartment and retail complex by Sudberry Properties is wrapping up nearly a year behind schedule after encountering a rash of delays caused primarily by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We had to jump through hoops,” said Marco Sessa, principal and senior vice president of Sudberry Properties.
“It’s been a challenging project,” Sessa said. “We had to deal with the reality of a construction project in the middle of this.”
With construction of the Hub starting just as the pandemic hit in 2019, “We’ve had the pleasure of living through construction for pretty much the entire time of COVID,” Sessa said.
Construction of the Hub’s 260 apartments and 10,700 square feet of retail space should be finished by June and Sudberry Properties has started leasing apartments in finished portions of the project.
“It’s pretty exciting to finally be getting it open,” Sessa said.
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Challenges
Getting garage doors, hot water tanks and appliances were among the biggest challenges.
“We’re kind of buying things here and there,” Sessa said. Because of a backlog of orders among manufacturers, “We’ve had to go to places like Home Depot to buy appliances.”
Lumber was another issue. Normally, the company would buy lumber as needed during construction but with supplies and prices fluctuating, Sudberry bought all the lumber for the project at the outset.
“Basically, we had the entire site covered with lumber,” Sessa said.
Getting exterior tile also proved challenging.
“We had some tile that was supposed to come from Italy that we had to switch out for materials that were readily available,” Sessa said.
Although not directly related to COVID, Sessa said that Sudberry had to dig dry wells 120 feet deep as part of an extensive storm water treatment system.
“When all that work was going on was right when COVID was hitting,” Sessa said. Construction was slowed when some work crews came down with the virus. “We lost some time, then we had rain,” Sessa added.
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Renters
Built at a 9.5-acre site at 9840 Carroll Canyon Road at the northeast corner of Interstate 15 and Carroll Canyon Road, the Hub has eight buildings including the leasing center.
The Hub site was formerly the flight training center and reservations center for Pacific Southwest Airlines, with two buildings that were razed to make room for the apartment complex.
Community amenities at the Hub include a pool and outdoor lounge area with a space, barbecues-and a 2,053 square-foot fitness center, a clubhouse with a demonstration kitchen, a game room, and a media screening room with an 85-inch television.
The Hub has 124 one-bedroom apartments, 124 two-bedroom apartments, and 12 three-bedroom apartments.
The apartments range from 614 square feet to 1,391 square feet.
Monthly rents range from about $2,600 to the high $4,000s, Sessa said.
The apartments have private patios or balconies, hardwood-style flooring with carpeting in bedrooms, stainless steel appliances, quartz countertops and full-size washers and dryers.
About 60% of the apartments have enclosed garages with direct access.
“Every unit on the ground floor can connect to the garages,” Sessa said. “The balance of the units have covered parking in car ports.”
Each apartment has one assigned parking space. Tenants can lease additional spaces.
So far, most of those signing leases have been in the 25 to 35-year-old age bracket, Sessa said. “Mostly, it’s skewing younger at the time when folks are forming households.”
Retail tenants that have signed leases include Starbucks, Pacific Dental Services, Big Cheech’s Chicken N’ Waffles and Sliders and Junction Bar and Grill.
The retail portion of the development is separated from the rest of the project with the residential portion forming it’s a gated community.
“That allowed us to separate the parking but also allows us to use that retail parking for overflow guest parking at night,” Sessa said.
“Having a transition at the front of the site really made a lot of sense from a use standpoint, getting the residential father back into the site,” Sessa said.
The project was designed by MVE Architecture based in Irvine. The general contractor was Reylenn Construction Company based in Solana Beach.
Also working on the project were Pasco Laret Suiter & Associates (PLSA) civil engineering and land planning, GroundLevel Landscape Architecture and Design Tec, Inc. interior design.
Sudberry Properties
Founded: 1979
CEO/President: Colton Sudberry
Headquarters: Sorrento Valley
Business: Real Estate Developer
Employees: Â 67
Website: Â www.sudprop.com
Contact: 858-546-3000
Notable: Sudberry Properties has developed approximately 12.6 million square feet of commercial and residential property with a market value exceeding $2.5 billion.
