Artist's rendering: The future of Hazard Center.

^{Courtesy image}

In a few years the Hazard Center Shopping Center is going to look a lot different, a lot less like a strip mall and more like a village. Last month the San Diego City Council gave the go-ahead for the shopping center’s revitalization project, which will be handled by downtown development firm Oliver McMillan. Dene Oliver, a partner in the firm, recently published an editorial that said the project will be a “stellar example of urban renaissance—taking an already great property and increasing its economic viability in an environmentally-sustainable way.”

That’s pretty ambitious-sounding, but the revitalization is actually in line with the city’s Smart Growth, “City of Villages” urban development plan, a major component of which is the redevelopment of areas like Hazard Center to create something that’s less one-use, traffic-conducive and more pedestrian-friendly, multi-use urban village, with 473 residential units in both mid and high-rise buildings, shops, open spaces, walkways and easy access to public transit.

The revamp won’t expand the footprint, because the expansion is vertical, and the high-rise buildings will be positioned partly along Hazard Center Drive and also at the corner of Friar’s Road and Frazee, says Evan Gerber, the project manager at Oliver McMillan. One goal of the project is to improve connectivity within the development and other nearby properties.

“We will widen sidewalks and create more of a pedestrian orientation so people can walk to Hazard Center East, which has more mom-and-pop shops and a grocery store,” says Gerber.

The build-out will cost more than $200 million. Oliver McMillan is assembling the financing from various capital partners. For the city it seems a win—more than $43 million in property taxes and $200 million in sales tax over 20 years, $14 million in development fees and more than 1,400 direct construction jobs.

Concurrent with this project is the extension of Hazard Center Drive, which will, ultimately, connect Hazard Center with Fashion Valley via a pedestrian walkway. Fashion Valley Mall is also undergoing a revitalization, although it’s more cosmetic than substantive—with changes to color, landscaping and lighting. That rehab will cost $15 million and begins July 1.

Hazard Center’s development plan will keep all the businesses currently there except for the Ultra Star Mission Valley Theatres. And that has been a sticking point for developers. The theater is used for many local film festivals, including the San Diego Latino Film Festival and the San Diego Asian Film Festival. Gerber says the theatre’s removal is aimed at reducing traffic, but he also notes that it’s not competitive with the theatres at Fashion Valley and Mission Valley malls because it’s older and does not have stadium seating. He says developers have made a “personnel, time and financial commitment to help transition” the film festivals to other venues.

But Phillip Lorenzo, operations director for the San Diego Asian Film Festival told KPBS news recently that relocating his festival could mean adding an additional $100,000 to the existing bottom line. Yet the theater’s future doesn’t appear to be negotiable, at this point. In its place will be something far less artistically gratifying: a parking structure. But, says Gerber, the developer is required by building code to provide a certain amount of parking.

Building in an infill location—which is the term used to describe the Mission Valley shopping center—rather than the backcountry where few people live, is tricky. Often there’s pushback from the community, because people generally don’t like change, says Gerber. For the last three years Oliver McMillan has been working with the community to allay concerns.

“We’ve made several changes to the project based on community input," he says. "The design of one building was pulled away from the street to create more of a buffer between the development and our neighbors. We really listened to the community and heard them out. And this is an example of a project modification made in response to what we heard.”