Multifamily Developers Starved for Land

There are currently about 4,500 apartments slated for delivery in San Diego this year, and more planned, but Douglas Wilson Cos CEO Doug Wilson tells us it isn’t enough to meet future demand. (If you live in San Diego, expect some people to be crashing on your couch.)

The market’s still affected by the lack of new residential construction over the last few years, Doug says (right, with his son Nicholas Wilson, who’s been with the firm for three years). “Now that the economy has stabilized, and is likely to grow over the next 12 to 24 months, we’re still seeing a market with limited supply and significant pent-up demand,” he explains. Douglas Wilson Cos recently acquired 50 acres of the 650-acre Pointe San Diego in Spring Valley and plans residential development on the site to take advantage of the still-simmering demand.

Doug adds that after years of putting it off, Millennials are now keen to form their own households in San Diego in both the rental and for-sale markets. Included in the Pointe San Diego are a six-acre improved site that’s entitled for 88 multifamily units, along with 44 acres—the former site of the proposed Pointe Resort—that Douglas Wilson Cos plans to re-entitle for additional residential development with a component of commercial properties to serve the neighborhood. 

Raw land isn’t the only prize in San Diego these days. Investors are also looking for obsolete structures primed for higher and better uses (residential, that is). LandCap CEO Steve Hinckley tells us that his company found such a site at 6950, 7020, and 7050 Friars Rd in San Diego, an assemblage that involved negotiations with three owners and took some months. Currently ’70s-vintage office buildings occupy the location. But LandCap has plans to put residential development there; Steve says the site's a much better fit for the current state of the market, and its close proximity to Fashion Valley Mall (pictured).