Downtown Classic Gets a Redo
A mid-'60s classic is about to get noticed again. (No, we're not talking about the release of the new Elaine Stritch documentary.) 530 B Street (nee Union Bank Building), bought by Kearny Real Estate five weeks ago, will have a major repositioning.
The 24-story building's got good bones, but Kearny wants to add some amenities, partner John Bragg told us yesterday. Part of the plan calls for a restaurant on the corner of Sixth and B, with outdoor seating to enliven the street level. The acquisition is Kearny's first office high-rise in Downtown San Diego and was 57% leased at the time of purchase from Union Bank. The bank ran the building as a regional HQ and "wasn't terribly aggressive" about bringing in other tenants, so a lot of people in downtown haven't seen it in years.
Until the late 1980s, 530 B was the tallest building in San Diego. John says its 9,250 SF floorplates--half of most nearby buildings--means a small- or mid-sized firm can have an entire floor. (For any company that's been dying to blast music but didn't want to upset the neighbors.) Smaller businesses of 10k SF or less make up 85% of the Downtown San Diego office market, he says. Kearny offices on the 18th floor; all of the upper floors (boasting three interior stairways, btw) are empty except for the 24th, which houses bank management. Union Bank is still the building's biggest tenant.
This rendering shows how a third-story patio might look after it's revamped. Kearny also plans to build out three spec suites, and white-box the 19th floor to show prospective tenants what an open floor would look like, without walls to spoil the panoramic views. Gensler's Kevin Heinly is the lead architect.
John previously headed up the San Diego office of Chevron Land & Development. He started Kearny's San Diego office in 1996 when the company, then part of Morgan Stanley, purchased the Chevron assets and developed biotech product in Torrey Pines. While 530 B is the tallest building Kearny has in San Diego, until last summer it owned the five-story Colonel Fletcher Building downtown. The firm purchased the historic office building in a loan portfolio, stabilized and got it 100% leased before selling.
With capital partner PCCP, Kearny owns 311 acres in Otay Mesa, where SANDAG, Caltrans, and a slew of others are self-financing a new Port of Entry and highway project. John says the POE would require 135 acres of Kearny's property and will be a significant catalyst for business. The company has a tentative map and certified EIR to build industrial on the rest of its land, one of the few places left in the county for development. Giving a hoot about Otay Mesa's burrowing owls, John "spent a fortune" to buy habitat land offsite--mitigation for disturbing the non-endangered species' stomping grounds, he says.
