Ground Breaks on New InterContinental Hotel; Open Houses to See This Weekend

Word on the Street

Luxury hotel breaks ground at Lane Field

The InterContinental hotel is coming to San Diego’s waterfront, bringing 400 rooms, shops, and restaurants near Broadway Pier. The 19-story hotel is part of a $217-million plan to redevelop the former site of Lane Field into an expansive mixed-use complex, called BRIC, which broke ground on Tuesday.

It will be one of only two InterContinental hotels in Southern California when it opens in 2018 (the other is in L.A.). Plans include a restaurant and bar on the third level, a rooftop bar, pool, several terraces, and a plaza along West Broadway.

The luxury property is one of several new hotels underway or planned for San Diego, including Marriott’s upscale Moxy Hotel and Montage’s Pendry Hotel, which is set to open this fall. A 2015 report from San Diego Tourism Authority says around 4,600 new hotel rooms will open throughout the county over the next two years—which not only gives visitors more options, but means locals can look forward to more places to dine and plan a staycation.

U-T gets ready to settle in downtown; Daily Transcript building sells

The Union-Tribune is closing the doors of its Mission Valley headquarters today, and the newsroom is getting ready to start the paper’s new chapter at its 600 B Street headquarters on Monday. Matthew Hall wrote a tribute to the building on Camino de la Reina, which the news organization occupied for 40 years. All of us at San Diego Magazine welcome the U-T to the neighborhood! Maybe we’ll run into you at Donut Bar.

Speaking of newsroom shuffles, the space for the former Daily Transcript in Bankers Hill was purchased for $5.3 million, and the new owner plans to convert the building—which takes up almost an entire block in one of the city’s hottest neighborhoods—into a “creative office complex,” according to a release from Colliers International, which handled the sale.

I worked there before I came to San Diego Magazine, and many other journalists and editors in town also got their start at the Transcript, including Matthew Hall, political consultant and SDM columnist Rachel Laing, Scott Lewis at Voice of San Diego, and New York Times photog Sam Hodgson. Some of my former coworkers and I have been curious about what would become of the building, and it will be interesting to see how the new owner will renovate it (and what color scheme they’ll choose to replace the current Pepto Bismol–hued exterior).

Illumina plans a big move on the Mesa

Illumina is getting a new headquarters in UTC. | Image courtesy of BioMed Realty/PR Newswire

Genome giant Illumina has committed to lease out the entire i3 campus, a 316,000-square-foot complex that is currently under construction in UTC.

The $189-million complex is huge—it will have the same square footage as five football fields—and will have plenty of green building features, sleek architecture, and fun amenities like a game court when it’s ready for Illumina to move in next year. You can watch a video about the new campus here.

House Hunting

This North Park home dates back to 1925. | Photo by Big Block Realty/Screenshot from Redfin

We’ve talked about how the North Park area is reaching its peak in housing prices—then we found a listing that tops the others we’ve featured in the neighborhood: A two-story, 1,307-square-foot home near Morley Field for $850,000. Granted, the home has been extensively renovated and it’s larger than the other houses on the street, but that’s still almost a million dollars! You can see it on Saturday, May 14, and find out what $850K will buy you in ZIP code 92104.

A two-story home in Bay Park on a 6,300-square-foot lot. | Photo by Harcourts Ranch and Coast/Screenshot from Redfin

For about the same price (or even less), this home in Bay Park by Tecolote Canyon has four bedrooms and about 2,500 square feet, plus a detached studio on the property. The listing says the seller will accept offers starting at $799,900—which is actually close to the average price for a house in this part of town.

A home with a pool near Cowles Mountain is going for $675,000. | Photo by Berkshire Hathaway HomeService/Screenshot from Redfin

Looking east, we found a two-story home on a corner lot for $675,000 in San Carlos. It has four bedrooms, a pool, and is near the trail to Cowles Mountain.

A $28.5 million view in La Jolla. | Photo by Coldwell Banker/Screenshot from Redfin

Feast your eyes on this oceanfront home in La Jolla. It has seven bedrooms, ten bathrooms, and more than 8,000 square feet. It’s going for $26.5 million and has been on the market for more than a month. The house is not open for viewing, but tours can be scheduled.