The Port of San Diego introduced the consulting team that is behind the Bayfront Master Plan project to Chula Vista’s City Council at Tuesday’s meeting.
Spearheading the project in its infancy are commercial real estate advisory firm Jones Lang LaSalle, consulting and investment advisory firm CCI Partners and architectural firm HKS Urban Design Studio.
The Port hired the firms in January although City Manager Jim Sandoval sat on the hiring committee.
Among its tasks, Jones Lang LaSalle is responsible for preparing market analysis for proposed bayfront use, estimating infrastructure costs, developing initial phasing and product mix, and preparing development proformas.
“These consultants are very experienced with big projects like this,” Tanya Castaneda, public information officer for the Port of San Diego, said.
The firm will also recommend infrastructure financing and cost allocation strategies and prepare recommendations for development.
Sandoval said Jones Lang LaSalle’s experience and ability to work quickly and efficiently is a reason he liked hiring the firm.
“When we were looking at different firms and their ability to move quickly with the quality we want, but also move with speed, all other firms we looked at would’ve taken four to six months longer to get moving,” Sandoval said at the council meeting.
Jones Lang LaSalle comes to the bayfront project with a hefty résumé.
The global corporation helped with the redevelopment of the new World Trade Center in New York, and is internationally known for serving as the development advisor in London’s Canary Wharf and the Greenwich Peninsula in London.
CCI Partners will work in collaboration with HKS Urban Design Studio to assist in the bayfront designing process.
The consulting and advisory firm’s role for the Bayfront Master Plan is to prepare design guidelines for developers and to develop branding and marketing strategies.
HKS Urban Design Studio’s duty is to establish the design guidelines of the Bayfront Master plan.
Randall Morton, associate principal director of Urban Design, said he wants to design the bayfront with an iconic look.
“We want to have one significant, memorable postcard icon for not only a city but a county and region,” he said.
Morton said the 535-acre bayfront will be split into two sections.
The first section he said is a public realm, which is 329 acres long and 61 percent of the project.
The public realm consists of parks, wetlands, buffer zones, streets and water areas.
The other part of the bayfront is the private development area.
This area is 39 percent of the bayfront project.
Morton said usually he wants a balance of 50-50, but because of the delicate nature of the bayfront they have it at 60-40.
Three districts will make up the bayfront: the Sweetwater district, which will include commercial recreation, the harbor district which will be mixed use, and the Otay district which will feature industrial and recreational use.
Because the core of the bayfront project lies on H Street it will be the most costly, Morton said.
“The best and most expensive and most prominent part that will be built is the foot of H Street,” he said.
At the meeting, Morton released conceptual renderings of what the bayfront might look like.
One of the images shows what Morton described “a classic California palm tree like street that is so memorable everywhere that it will be the post card icon.”
He said this phase will be built first.
The Port hired Jones Lang LaSalle for $495,000 for 11 months. CCI LLC and HMS Urban Design Studio were hired for 10 months at $345,000.
