In more than 40 years of redevelopment, downtown San Diego has added pricey as well as affordable housing, high-rise office and hotel towers, convention, shopping and sporting meccas and dozens of trendy bars and restaurants.

But now comes what many downtown boosters have dreamed of for decades — a major research university that can attract business, jobs and international attention.

UC San Diego, which previously held classes in rented space, has announced a $42 million, 66,000-square-foot downtown outpost that will be part a much bigger development due for City Council review on Tuesday. Construction is expected to begin next year with completion by late 2020 or early-2021.

When the four-story facility called the “Innovative Cultural and Education Hub” opens at Park Boulevard and Market Street in East Village, students and faculty will conduct field research out of upper-level studios. Campus artists will display art works and perform music, dance and drama pieces. Professors will conduct classes geared to downtown entrepreneurs and the general public. And students from surrounding neighborhoods will learn computer coding and take readiness classes to prepare themselves for college.


“It is a strong signal to the community...that we welcome you and we want you to be part of us and we want to be part of you,” said Chancellor Pradeep Khosla in an interview at his office last week.

Downtown leaders are hailing the move as a major step in making downtown a hub for the new 21st century tech-economy just as UCSD’s campus on Torrey Pines Mesa spun off numerous biotech and telecommunications companies with thousands of well-paid employees since the 1960s.

The university in turn hopes its presence will inspire more students, especially those in lower-income neighborhoods south of Interstate 8, to apply for admission. Campus leaders also aim to attract a wider audience to its artistic and academic offerings that doesn’t require braving the traffic and parking problems in and around the main campus.


“It’s everything we’ve wanted and then some,” said Kris Michell, president and CEO of the Downtown San Diego Partnership business group, which opened a “collaboratory” classroom space with UCSD earlier this year at its office building on B Street.

David Hazan, president of the East Village Association, said UCSD’s commitment should give developers and companies the confidence to move to or grow in downtown as well.

“I think this is just the start and hopefully the dominoes will start to fall once this thing gets going,” he said.

Matt Carlson, a CBRE commercial broker active in downtown office leasing, said the timing could never be better, given dropping vacancy rates, rising rental rates and growing demand for creative office space.


“As soon as UCSD or one of the other big academic institutions puts a beachhead downtown,’ Carlson said potential users told him, “then we’ll know downtown has arrived.”

The building would be part of Holland Partner Group’s $275 million proposed Park & Market project. The university expects to buy the building for an estimated $36.2 million and spend about $6 million in tenant improvements. UCSD’s Extension division has set aside about $4 million from course and program fees for the project and expects to cover the rest from fund-raising and loans.

“Landing a university presence in downtown San Diego is a game changer and the result of years of hard work to make it reality,” said Mayor Kevin Faulconer. “This new project will continue the revitalization of the East Village neighborhood and, with UCSD’s top-notch reputation, provide countless opportunities for collaboration as we prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow.”

The mayor’s deputy chief operating officer for planning and development, David Graham, said the agreement came after years of discussion about how and where UCSD might expand to the city’s business and government center. “I’m about growing companies and helping startups small and medium sizes grow to be large,” Graham said. “I also think there will be companies that want to be close and connected to the activities of the university that will potentially take a second look at coming downtown.”


Beyond officialdom, UCSD’s decision was welcomed by one of its alumni, who has a program to offer at the hub.

Christopher Yanov, a 1999 UCSD graduate in political science and Spanish, runs the Reality Changers program for aspiring college students. He earned his degree while working in the city with gang members in the rough parts of town by night after taking classes all day a world away in La Jolla. He said the new hub will be a logical place to help middle- and high-school students get ready for higher education and careers.

“By coming to the neighborhoods (near downtown) and having a presence on their doorstep, that’s a clear signal to students in those communities that they matter to UCSD,” Yanov said.

It’s too early to know what classes, programs and research will take place at the new hub, but Keith Pezzoli, director of UCSD’s Urban Studies and Planning program, said his students will be natural users of the new location. They will be closer to neighborhoods where they study housing, transportation, “food deserts” and big city initiatives. They also will be surrounded by startups, government agencies and traditional banking, law and real estate businesses with internships, job openings and unlimited networking opportunities.


On the same block will be a 34-story, 426-unit apartment tower with 85 low-income units that graduate students making less than $31,500 could qualify to rent; an outdoor amphitheater event space; and restoration of the historic Remmen House.

A key factor in choosing the site, officials said, was its location on the San Diego Trolley line that is being extended to the campus and set to open by the time the project opens.

Holland would pay the city $12.3 million for the property, bounded by Park Boulevard and 11th, G and Market streets with the proceeds going back into the city’s affordable housing fund. The university anticipates paying Holland about $36.2 million for the office building depending on the actual construction cost, and around $6 million in tenant improvements. UCSD plans to fund its project from nontaxpayer sources, such as a extension course fees, programs, grants and donations and bank loans.

Founded in 2001 in Vancouver, Wash., near Portland, Ore., Holland has developed and manages 30,000 apartments worth $7.5 billion in western states, including 240-unit Form 15 in two blocks east of the UCSD site. But when it came to bidding on the Park & Market project, development director Brent Schertzer said the office component posed substantial risk since the company had not landed any leasing commitments in advance.


“It just happened that UCSD came knocking on our door right about the time we were getting ready to get that (preleasing) started,” Schertzer said.

Planned in the office building are a 3,000-square-foot ground floor public restaurant, classrooms, performance and exhibition spaces and work space for faculty and student researchers and offices for the chancellor, deans and other visiting campus officials. There would be about 92 underground parking spaces for campus use.

The university’s driving force for the move has been Mary Walshok, associate vice chancellor for public programs and dean of extension.

“I think what happened is both the city and the university are ready for a new opportunity,” Walshok said.


Khosla said if the downtown project succeeds, he can imagine UCSD replicating it in Chula Vista, East County and other parts of the region. But he said for now he is not interested in partnering with San Diego State University to redevelop the Qualcomm Stadium property in Mission Valley as has been proposed.

“Superficially, I would think that area belongs more to San Diego State and we need to give them their space to grow,” he said.

UCSD and downtown decision makers have had a direct connection in recent years through the Centre City Development Corp., now operating as Civic San Diego, the city’s downtown development agency. CivicSD Chairman Jeff Gattas is UCSD’s executive director of marketing, media relations and public affairs, and former CCDC/CivicSD President Jeff Graham, no relation to David Graham, is UCSD’s executive director of real estate. Gattas said he has recused himself from voting on the project and Graham said he has been away long enough from CivicSD to eliminate any legal conflicts. Current CivicSD President Reese Jarrett said the UCSD-Holland deal did not figure into recommending the developer.


roger.showley@sduniontribune.com; (619) 293-1286; Twitter: @rogershowley