No matter what you think about San Diego’s newest high-rise apartment building, it will be hard to miss.

The 21-story Shift complex in East Village has an orange 240-foot tower protruding from the building with jagged shapes and dark black windows, making it visible from much of downtown and surrounding freeways.

If the color looks familiar, it’s because it is the same orange paint as the Golden Gate Bridge. The architect said the intention was not to connect the building to San Francisco but to use the rust-colored paint to invoke the neighborhood’s industrial past.

Developer Lennar said it wanted a unique design that would stand out and serve as a landmark.


“The internationally inspired modern design pulls no punches with its use of building materials, bold colors and angles” said Dan Ferguson, director of development at Lennar Multifamily Communities.

Shift has 368 apartments and joins a neighborhood of rising residential towers, all with high rents and plenty of amenities.

San Diego-based Carrier Johnson + Culture designed the building and said it was inspired by Bob Sinclair, a coffee pioneer and East Village businessman who championed refurbishing old buildings and celebrating their industrial past.

“The design boldly celebrates the legacy of the East Village as a community that welcomes and supports the arts and artists,” wrote David Gonzalez, senior associate design leader, in an email, “especially those who found the beauty in the neighborhood’s rich history of industry.”


Reaction to Shift will probably be in the eye of the beholder.

The complex received high praise in 2015 from Civic San Diego, downtown’s planning agency, with one commissioner commenting on its “mind blowing” design. Construction began in March 2016, taking just over two years to complete.

Daniela Deutsch, a professor at San Diego’s NewSchool of Architecture and Design, said she appreciated how the building adds personality to San Diego’s skyline but its design may be a bit too intense. Deutsch, who worked at Carrier Johnson + Culture from 2002 to 2007, said good buildings can stand out, but should also seem inviting to people — something she said Shift may have missed the mark on.

“Think of the skyline of Seattle, it is very modern and efficient, but the buildings have a melody together,” she said. “They are not kind of hitting you in the head.”


The amenity rush

While the outside of the building might be the most-attention grabbing, the inside of the building is packed with amenities.

Tenants are greeted with a proprietary Lennar scent in the lobby that smells like a really expensive scented candle, a concierge seated behind a white desk and an original psychedelic painting by Chor Boogie, a spray paint artist based in San Francisco.

All units come with a washer and dryer, parking spot, stainless steel appliances, designer features in kitchens and bathrooms, and expansive views in many of the units. Roughly 80 percent of the apartments have a balcony.

All residents have access to a sky lounge on the 21st floor that has an outdoor and indoor section complete with fireplaces, free wireless Internet, pool with a capacity for 12 people, a hot tub with capacity for eight people, outdoor furniture, several barbecues and water-proof TVs.


Shift was designed by Carrier Johnson + Culture (Phillip Molnar/San Diego Union-Tribune )

Paul Ogler, senior vice president of development for Lennar in California, said the competition to attract tenants in downtown San Diego is pushing developers to add more amenities.

“In our industry, it’s an arms race,” he said earlier this week during a tour of Shift.

Other amenities at Shift include a gym on the 21st floor with views of the entire city and as far as Tijuana, as well as a “motivation wall” with nine TVs that play GoPro videos of extreme sports. Shift also has a terrace on the seventh floor for all residents, a dog park on the sixth floor and co-working space on the first floor.


There are 501 parking spots at Shift, which works out to one spot for each apartment and up to two for a two-bedroom.

Rent at Shift varies greatly because there are 45 different floor plans. Real estate tracker CoStar put the average asking rent at the complex at $2,803 a month. The cheapest is a studio, with an average asking rent of $2,082 a month; one-bedroom for $2,599; and two-bedroom for $3,942.

Lennar is offering one-month free rent, or two months free, in some units to entice renters. Shift does not officially finish construction until later in June, but it is now around 15 percent leased with limited amenities. The gym, for example, is not opened yet.

A rising East Village


There are 1,541 apartments opening in East Village this year, outpacing the other new downtown residential hub Little Italy where 559 are set to open. Nearly half of East Village’s new apartments are at Park 12, downtown’s biggest ever residential tower with 718 units.

A walk through East Village shows a neighborhood in transition with older industrial buildings, homeless people, several luxury high-rises already built and more planned or proposed.

Next to Shift, the second Pinnacle on the Park building is being built with plans for 472 apartments. Down the street, construction is ongoing at Nook East Village, a 91-unit complex. Another amenity-rich project nearby, Alexan ALX, opened earlier this year.

The number of housing units in East Village has more than tripled since 2000. Looking at multifamily buildings, CoStar data says there were around 1,059 apartments with an average monthly asking rent of $877 in 2000. As of this year, there were 3,840 units in East Village with an average monthly asking rent of $2,336.


Real estate consultant Gary London said it’s possible that the submarket of southern East Village — with Alexan ALX, Shift, Pinnacle on the Park and Park 12 — could become a sought-after place for affluent renters.

But, he said the long-term success for the neighborhood’s rental market depends on a continued strong economy and adding more jobs downtown, making living in an urban center worth it.

“We have virtually added no significant employment downtown in the last 18 years, and that’s a big problem,” he said. “It’s one thing to build these apartments, but it’s another thing to fill them with people that have to commute somewhere to work.”

* * *


New East Village complexes rent comparison

Pinnacle on the Park (483 units)

424 15th St.

Average asking rent: $2,597

Alexan ALX (313 units)


300 14th St.

Average asking rent: $2,828

Shift (368 units)

1501 Island Ave.


Average asking rent: $2,803

IDEA1 (295 units)

895 Park Blvd

Average asking rent: $2,562


EV Lofts (208 units)

688 13th St.

Average asking rent: $2,055

Source: CoStar



Business

phillip.molnar@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1891 Twitter: @phillipmolnar

ALSO

San Diego’s new single-family homes are pricey, modern and in short supply


Tijuana condo craze continues in to 2018

Last year’s housing market broke records