One of the most ambitious projects in Tijuana’s history has been delayed twice as a 63-acre site in the middle of the city remains empty.

The roughly $213 million Bajalta development calls for five towers with 350 condos and up to 200 hotel rooms, an office building and 645,834 square feet of retail space.

Developers Artha Capital and Pacifica Companies are aiming for May to break ground on the office tower and three-floor shopping center. That first phase is targeted for completion by early to mid-2019.

Mario Roberto Rubio, Artha Capital project director, said the November start date was pushed back because his company was moving resources around as it developed several projects throughout Mexico. He said the March start date was moved because it is still reviewing proposals from several hotel operators to manage the hotel.


Project delays for large projects are common in San Diego and most major cities, but Tijuana still conjures negative images for some because of Trump Ocean Baja and other projects that went bust, causing Americans who invested to lose out on thousands of dollars.

Mexico has been in uncertain territory since the November election victory of Donald Trump. The president is calling for a massive border wall between the two nations and retooling the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“There’s no question that Trump has been major damaging to Tijuana and other border towns because of the uncertainty over NAFTA,” said Greg Shannon, chair of the San Diego-Tijuana Urban Land Institute’s management committee.

“That kind of a chill isn’t good for anybody,” he said. “The worst thing in life, and it’s deadly to real estate, is uncertainty.”


Artha Capital declined to comment on what Trump’s policies mean for its project, instead focusing on the strength of the San Diego and Tijuana megaregion.

“We see incredible market growth in Tijuana,” Rubio said.

Trump’s rise has apparently not slowed the city’s building of nearly 2,000 condos over the next two years, the biggest residential construction push in a decade.

Two notable projects set to open by the end of this year: Adamant Tijuana, a 32-story tower near Estadio Caliente (the stadium used by Club Tijuana), and the 15-story Cosmopolitan Residences, which intends to become one of the only LEED certified, which stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, projects in the city.


Bajalta will be designed by New York-based SHoP Architects, which worked on the Uber headquarters in San Francisco and Google offices in Mountain View. Artha said the company is still finalizing the design.

A date for Bajalta’s total completion is not set. It is planned to include three 29- to 30-story residential towers, one 19-story office building and a hotel, which does not have a set floor count yet.

Artha said the proposed retail development will have international brands on the first floor, local shops on the second and entertainment on the third floor.

Once completed the project would be part of a changing skyline of Tijuana that, besides Grand Hotel Tijuana’s 25-story twin towers, stayed fairly grounded before the recent building surge.


“(Bajalta) could mean a real step up for Tijuana,” said Shannon, of ULI. “I think it will help change Tijuana’s image as the trampoline — a place where people go to jump off to somewhere else — to be more of a cosmopolitan, big city in its own right.”

The lot where Bajalta is set to go (Alejandro Tamayo / The San Diego Union-Tribune)


Business

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

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