Monday, December 19, 2011

News Flash! What's REALLY up with Bay View Plaza

Bay View Plaza on Clairemont Drive at the 5
After noticing the fence was gone around the empty shopping center at the foot of Clairemont Dr. I made some phone calls to see what was up. I got nowhere with the developer I'd spoken with before, and the PR person for the developer is no longer working with the company. I finally reached a leasing agent, Bruce Schiff of Cassidy Turley BRE Commercial, that had formerly been working with the developer and he filled me in. 


Unfortunately the news isn't great for those in Clairemont tired of seeing an abandoned looking building at our community's "front door".


It seems the original owner/developer, CW Clark, had City-approved plans for a retail center there. About a year or so ago they even had an anchor tenant signed to a lease, Frazier Farms, a grocery store.  Unfortunately, the developer could not raise the financing necessary to go ahead and redevelop the center.  Clark filed bankruptcy on the project, and a group of Egyptian investors have now purchased the property from the bankruptcy court. 
According to Mr. Schiff, they plan to demolish the existing buildings (not including the Best Western Hotel) and build mostly residential units on the property with perhaps a small amount of retail space.  I asked if there was a contact for the investors that I might get more information from, but Mr. Schiff said they are in Egypt now raising money for the redevelopment.


The part of this story that is good news for Clairemont is that since the new owners will have to get their own plans approved by the City, they will have to get input from the community, via the Clairemont Mesa Planning Group


That should be interesting as my perception from the letters and phone calls I receive asking about this center is that the community does not want more housing there, and would prefer a grocery store along the lines of Fresh and Easy or Trader Joe's.  Your thoughts Clairemont?

3 comments:

  1. The Best Western Hotel Has always keeps up it site clean and neat. Would be a shame to lose this hotel. Trade Joes a small market or drug store chain would be great. But more housing I think is a bad idea. What is going on with the eye sore across the street where they started construction and stopped. I had been a 76 gas Station.
    I think that the city should not allow more housing or limit it greatly. The hotel should stay.
    wonder how it currently zoned?

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  2. Just what we don't we'd....more condos, and less places for fresh food, TJ, OR Fresh and Easy, or frazier arms. The hotel can stay for visitors, but please no more cheap looking condos.

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  3. Check out the December issue of the Clairemont Community News for the latest on Bay View Plaza...http://www.clairemont.com/current-issue

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