OCEANSIDE SWELL; Growing Market, Competition Drive Refurbishing
By MANDY JACKSON
Various Oceanside retail real estate owners, such as Alex Zirpolo, are redeveloping their properties in hopes of taking advantage of strong residential and office construction in the city on Orange County’s southern border.
“Older shopping centers have to change to be competitive,” said Jane McVey, Oceanside’s economic development director.
Largely, retail owners and developers are looking to take advantage of the growing residential base in Oceanside, McVey said. Almost 5,000 new homes are planned for construction, and the age and income level of the city’s residents is rising.
Also, millions of square feet of new office and industrial development are anticipated in the next few years, adding to the number of employees shopping and eating in the city during the day.
Zirpolo of Elkin-Zirpolo Inc., is reconstructing his Del Oro Marketplace on the southwest corner of College and Oceanside boulevards.
More than 12,500 square feet of the existing shopping center is being torn down on the 9.14-acre site. Construction is under way on a mostly new shopping center that will total 78,000 square feet, including a 14,000-square-foot food court.
A North County Transit District station will also be built on the site to accommodate a new light rail line that will run between Interstates 15 and 5. The line is expected to be operational by 2004 or 2005.
Demolition began in late December and construction will be done in the summer. Some tenants who plan to stay in Del Oro will remain in business during construction, according to Zirpolo.
Current tenants include a local dentist office and Aaron’s Rents, a furniture rental store. New tenants are Armstrong Garden Centers, McDonald’s, Bruegger’s Bagels, Panda Express, a car wash, and others.
A pad site for a restaurant, a 4,100-square-foot space and a 5,600-square-foot space are still available. Reg Kobzi and Joe Greeno, senior vice presidents for Grubb & Ellis in San Diego, are the leasing agents for the shopping center.
The architect for the renovation is SGPA Architecture and Planning of San Diego. The general contractor is Encinitas-based Bearing Construction Inc.
The area surrounding Del Oro Marketplace already has a strong daytime population, according to McVey, and is surrounded by shopping centers on the other three corners at the intersection.
“It is ground zero for all of the business parks in that area,” she said.
Ocean Ranch Corporate Center is a 400-acre business park for office and light industrial development at Rancho Del Oro Road and Oceanside Boulevard being developed by Laguna Hills-based Stirling Development. It could be developed with up to 5 million square feet of buildings.
La Jolla-based Idec Pharmaceuticals Corp. bought 60 acres in Ocean Ranch to build a 1.8-million-square-foot manufacturing and research complex, which is expected to break ground in the first quarter of this year.
“There’s a tremendous residential base in a one mile radius, with 3,500 homes in Rancho Del Oro. When Ocean Ranch is built out, there will be 6 to 7 million square feet of office and industrial development in the area,” Zirpolo said.
Retail services are an important factor for businesses in choosing a location, especially convenience retail such as day cares, dry cleaners and grocery stores, McVey said.
Discount retailer Target recently completed an expansion of its store on the northeast corner of El Camino Real and Vista Way. Also, site work for a new Lowe’s home improvement store is ongoing on the southeast corner of Highway 76 and Old Grove Road.
Shopping center owner Center Trust has renovated its El Camino North shopping center at Highway 78 and El Camino Real to maintain its position in the marketplace.
In the future, the city would like to see more restaurants come to Oceanside, McVey said. Particularly at the intersection of Oceanside and College boulevards, more restaurants are needed to serve the growing lunch crowd created by new office and industrial development.
Jackson is a staff writer with the San Diego Business Journal.
