Real Estate: Like Much Of The County, Land Is Becoming Scarce For Large Projects
With the exception of a several large sites in the East County that may become available in the next few years, the area is nearly built out as far as industrial and office development is concerned.
“Very small amounts (of land) are left,” said James Griffin, El Cajon’s director of community development.
Only a handful of industrial construction projects are under way in El Cajon, which has the highest concentration of industrial facilities in East County. Eight buildings averaging about 50,000 square feet are under construction, Griffin said.
Most of the city’s industrial development surrounds the county-operated airport, Gillespie Field, located at 1960 Joe Crosson Road, off Bradley Avenue and Highway 67.
San Diego County owns the land, and developers lease their sites from the county. Revenue generated by surrounding commercial development pays the operating expenses for the county’s airports.
The county airport system owns 775 acres at Gillespie Field. Commercial development on land not used by the airport began 23 years ago with the Gillespie Field Industrial Park, according to Darlene Hazlett-Kitchen, who oversees airport-area development for the county.
Construction is ongoing for a 21,000-square-foot building designed for a corporate user and a 33,000-square-foot multi-tenant building at Gillespie Field Business Park, according to Richard Dentt of Dentt Properties. Dentt and partner Frank Sciacca plan to develop five more buildings at the business park totaling more than 100,000 square feet. The buildings include four multitenant and one single-user office building.
“We’ve got very high demand everyone’s now calling to get in,” Dentt said.
Hazlett-Kitchen said there is a 43-acre area to the west of Cuyamaca Street that could still be developed, but the Federal Aviation Administration must approve use of the property for commercial development.
Also, 70 acres currently occupied by the El Cajon Speedway may become available in 2005, when the organization’s lease for the land expires. Hazlett-Kitchen said all or part of the parcel will eventually be redeveloped for airport-related development.
In another area of El Cajon, House Properties of El Cajon is developing Center Pointe, a six-building, 200,000-square-foot complex in the city’s industrial area, south of Bradley Avenue. The last two buildings are nearly completed and most of the space has been leased, according to Mark Silverman, a broker at San Diego Commercial Real Estate Services.
In La Mesa, Silverman said, there is no land available for industrial development, except for small lots that occasionally open up from year to year.
Little Left In La Mesa
David Witt, La Mesa’s community development director, concurred, saying there is “close to nothing” left for industrial sites. The city’s industrial development is concentrated in an area bounded roughly by Interstate 8 on the south, Jackson Drive on the east and trolley tracks to the north and west.
No significant industrial or office construction is under way or planned in La Mesa, Witt said. Rehabilitation of existing facilities and new residential development are the city’s current focus.
Farther east, some large lots may be opening in the next few years in Santee.
Santee Town Center, a 700-acre master-planned area, is about half-developed with retail and residential properties, according to Douglas Williford, Santee’s development services director. The city adopted a master plan for the area in 1986 with expectations of mixed-use development taking place over several years.
Construction for a 55-acre community park will begin this month. Also, the city recently approved a 430,000-square-foot shopping center named Santee Trolley Square, which will be developed by Vestar Development Co. of Phoenix.
The city and county are coordinating plans for a corporate business park in Santee Town Center on 104 acres owned by the county. The site is along Mission Gorge Road, between Cuyamaca Street and Magnolia Avenue. Ryan Cos. of Phoenix was recently selected as the master developer for the business park.
Williford said the city and county would like to see the land developed for tenants involved in technology and research and development. Early conceptual plans include up to 1.5 million square feet of office and industrial development in several buildings, he said.
“This is unusual in this part of the county. It’s similar to what you’d see in the Interstate 5 or Interstate 15 corridor,” Williford explained.
Potential Tech Park
Land in Fanita Ranch in Santee is also being eyed for industrial development. The San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. identified the area as a potential site for a regional technology park. Williford said about half of the 2,600-acre property is developable.
According to Williford, the private property owner may select a buyer in the next month or so. In that case, the city could be in serious discussions with a developer sometime in the next year.
In the more immediate future, Silverman is marketing a 1-acre and a 5-acre site for the city. He said the city is looking for a distribution-type facility to be developed on the smaller site and prefers a high-tech user for the larger site, which can accommodate up to 100,000 square feet.
Vacancy in East County industrial properties is between 3 and 5 percent, according to Silverman.
The East County market includes El Cajon, La Mesa, Lakeside, Lemon Grove, Spring Valley and Santee, and has 11 million square feet of industrial space, according to the San Diego Society of Industrial and Office Realtors’ 2001 Market Update. More than half of the industrial space is in El Cajon. Silverman completed the market summary for the East County included in the SIOR report.
The East County does not have a lot of corporate headquarters operations because large sites have been limited. Because of that, quite a bit of the businesses located in East County are what Silverman calls “the mainstay of our economy” , machine shops, manufacturing facilities and construction businesses, among others.
Also, he said East County has attracted smaller high-tech companies that wanted to stay close to where company owners and employees live.
Employers often choose East County because, “It’s to their benefit to have facilities near where their employers work,” El Cajon’s Griffin said. Offering shorter travel times to work means fewer late employees, he added.
Also, Griffin noted the cost of land in the East County is lower than in North County and along the coast.
