San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
THEATER’S LAND IN OCEANSIDE DESTINED AS RESIDENTIAL HIGHRISE
Developer proposes 75-foot structure, 321 residences
A Newport Beach developer plans to build a sevenstory combination of residences, retail shops and restaurants on the 2.7 acres occupied by the Regal Cinemas complex that opened in 1999 on Mission Avenue in downtown Oceanside.
It’s another dramatic about-face in a military town that has seen many changes in recent decades.
The proposed 75-foot-tall building would have 321 residential units and three levels of parking, including one level below ground, along with open-air courtyards, a “resort-style pool, spa, lounges and lush gardens,” according to the preliminary application on file at Oceanside City Hall.
The studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom living spaces from 600 square feet up to 1,200 square feet each would be on the top five levels. The developer doesn’t specify whether the homes would be townhouses, condominiums or apartments.
Property owner JH Real Estate Partners Inc. of Newport Beach filed the plans with the city May 11. Company officials met with city planners May 25 to discuss the project in a developer’s conference at the Oceanside Civic Center.
Company Vice President Ernie Rivas said last week that the project is in its earliest stages and that it’s “premature” to talk about when construction might start.
“We are just looking at different options,” Rivas said. “This kind of project takes years ... I wish I could say we’re starting tomorrow.”
When the 16-screen theater complex known as the Oceanplace Entertainment Center opened at Mission Avenue and South Coast Highway, officials touted it as a symbol of the city’s rebirth. The development began a slow transformation from the bars, barbershops and T-shirt retailers that catered to young Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton in the 1970s and ‘80s.
The property, like several others near the city’s popular pier, had been vacant for years as city officials searched for potential redevelopment projects. Some people thought the grassy open space along South Coast Highway was a public park. Nothing in downtown Oceanside was more than two or three stories tall in that era.
“At the time this project was proposed, those of us interested in the revitalization of downtown Oceanside were desperate for a project on those two vacant lots,” said Rick Wright, executive director of the business group Mainstreet Oceanside.
“Unfortunately, in recent years the movie theater has struggled and the retail spaces have suffered from vacancies,” Wright said. “I will be interested to see what the current property owners propose for this site when they make a formal application to the city.”
Regal Cinema is one of the world’s largest theater chains and operates 7,500 screens in the United States. The chain reported its firstever financial loss in 2020 because of the closures forced by the pandemic, according to a recent story The Washington Post.
More than two years of a worldwide pandemic have increased many people’s desires to work from home or live near their work, helping to boost residential property values. Developers are looking for new ways to use old retail properties, and many are mixing residential with commercial uses.
“This contemporary seven-story podium building emphasizes connectivity with an existing downtown area, full of vibrant shops, restaurants, and retail, while merging it with a seaside lifestyle,” states the Mission Avenue property owner’s application.
The Oceanplace center failed to get off to a strong start despite the optimism and turn-of-the-century hoopla.
The movie theater opened first, slowly followed over the months by ice cream, pizza and skateboard shops in the complex. But much of the retail space remained empty for years. The nearest parking structure was blocks away, which may have hampered patrons. The Police Department opened a resource center in one of the spaces.
A second phase of Oceanplace, with a nightclub and live entertainment venue, was planned for the remaining vacant property between the theaters and Cleveland Street. But it was never built. Instead, the developer got the city’s approval in 2002 to build a six-story building with condominiums on top of ground-floor shops and restaurants.
Four years after the entertainment complex opened, in 2004, nearly 5,000 square feet of commercial space remained unoccupied in the original 100,000square-foot center, where the theaters occupy about 40,000 square feet.
The Breakwater Brewing Co., a microbrewery and restaurant, was the last to open in a long-vacant corner of the property at South Coast Highway and Seagaze Drive in 2008.
Oceanside’s transformation has been a long time coming, but in the last few years the growth has kicked into high gear.
Two large resort hotels opened in 2021 on Pacific Street near the municipal pier after more than 25 years of planning, negotiations and false starts. The hotels are the high points in a nineblock redevelopment area that’s nearly finished.
Six- and seven-story apartment buildings and resort hotels have sprouted on nearby blocks overlooking the beach, property that the city bought, cleared and paved for parking lots while courting potential developers.
The surrounding neighborhoods are filled with new townhouses, restaurants, and shops, as the transformation continues.
philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com