Land sold in La Costa area will become site of community shopping center

By THOR KAMBAN BIBERMAN
San Diego Daily Transcript
Monday, January 26, 2004

An 82-acre parcel of land in the La Costa area has been sold for $25.53 million and will become the site of a mixed-use community shopping center.

The land at the intersection of Rancho Santa Fe Road and La Costa Avenue east of Rancho La Costa was acquired by La Costa Town Square LLC with commercial and industrial developer John Tworoger as managing member for a mixed-use development.

The property was purchased from MAG Properties. MAG is an entity that had been headed by the late Golden Eagle Insurance, Big Bear Market founder and prize thoroughbred owner John Mabee. Mabee's widow Betty and son Larry sold the property as successors in the Mabee Family Trust. The sellers took back a $15,275,000 trust deed on the transaction.

Steve Avoyer and Bill Thaxton of Flocke & Avoyer Commercial Real Estate represented the buyer in the transaction.

Tworoger, who's had an eye on the property for several years, is planning 385,192 square feet of retail, 75,000 square feet of medical office, 64 single-family detached homes and 14 multifamily units.

The project, still in the planning phase, will also include a 50,000-square-foot 11- or 12-screen theater with stadium seating, a grocery store, department store, specialty stores, banks, restaurants and other services.

Tworoger said the project will have various water features, including a waterfall, so the project isn't overwhelmed by the image of a "sea of cars."

Both he and Thaxton are particularly excited about the prospects of a modern multiplex in the La Costa area. "I think the closest theater with stadium seating is the 18-plex in San Marcos," Thaxton said.

The project is designed with a main street in the Italian-Mediterranean style of architecture. "We've hired Gretchen Early who handled the Flower Hill Mall (across Interstate 5 from Del Mar Fairgrounds)," Tworoger said.

Within the project is a central plaza featuring a fountain surrounded by an assortment of restaurants and food shops. The larger uses -- theater, grocery store, department store -- are located around the perimeter of the project and are linked with the central plaza and each other via pedestrian paseos.

"This is an incredible opportunity," said Tworoger. "This is the kind of project where we as the developer can bring a center that provides amenities that are not just desired, but will fill an existing void."

Thaxton said that the timing appears to be just about perfect for this project, and while there has been a significant amount of new retail development to serve such residential projects as the Villages of La Costa, and even San Elijo Hills in San Marcos, there is room enough for all the retail. Thaxton said the project site is about a five minute drive from the La Costa Resort & Spa.

There is no shortage of new retail development in the area. For example, there is a new Albertsons (NYSE: ABS) store at La Costa Boulevard and El Camino Real, a new Home Depot (NYSE: HD) has been built at El Camino Real and Olivenhain Road, and a Target-anchored (NYSE: TGT) center has been built diagonally across El Camino Real from the Home Depot site.

With all the space that has been constructed -- Thaxton estimated there must be about 1 million square feet in this part of Carlsbad -- the vacancy is probably less than 5 percent.

The low vacancy means that rents are comfortably in the $3 per square foot range, and as much as $3.25 and higher in some cases.

Smith Consulting Architects is designing the project, O'Day and Associates is overseeing the engineering, Government Solutions Inc. is handling the entitlements for the project, Ladwig Design is contributing to the land-planning effort and Flocke & Avoyer will be the exclusive leasing agents. Lusardi Construction of San Marcos is the general contractor on the project, and O'Day Consulting of Carlsbad is the civil engineer.

Flocke & Avoyer and Tworoger worked together on Tworoger's purchase for $5 million of the 28,000-square-foot La Jolla Marketplace project on Girard Avenue in La Jolla in November 2001.

Tworoger said he is hoping to gain his entitlements to the La Costa project in June. If all goes as he would hope, the center would open in February 2006.

"We've been at it for quite a number of years," Tworoger said. "I've been working on it for at least the past five years anyway." Meanwhile Tworoger has been busy on other fronts. Within he past few years he developed several projects in Carlsbad, including a new administration building for the city of Carlsbad on Faraday Avenue, an 86,000-square-foot office building called Aston View on Aston Avenue, and an 84,000-square-foot office development called Palomar Crest on Loker Avenue West.