The architectural firm behind the design of the planned $4 billion Riverwalk development in Mission Valley has opened an office in downtown San Diego.
“Looking at what we feel is a very good market down here with a lot of promise, we decided it was time to have a brick-and-mortar office down here,” said Chase Rongé, a principal of MVE + Partners and director of the firm’s San Diego office.
“MVE has been doing work down here for about 40 years,” Rongé said. “Our main office is in Irvine, so it’s close enough that we can have some really great connectivity.”
In addition to developing the master plan for Riverwalk, Irvine-based MVE + Partners has designed several prominent San Diego projects, including Mercado del Barrio in Barrio Logan, The Village at Torrey Pines student housing for the University of California, San Diego and Pacific Highlands recreation center in Del Mar.
“We have about 30 projects that we’ve done in San Diego, architectural projects. We have some additional master planning projects that go back quite a way,” Rongé said.
Recent San Diego projects include the design of an affordable housing project with 190 apartments in Riverwalk, slated to break ground this summer, and a 21-story market-rate apartment tower on Park Boulevard and Normal Street in Hillcrest that will have 206 apartments, with construction scheduled to start in late 2025.
Planed by Hines, the development of Riverwalk was paused in 2024 because of rising construction costs and stubbornly high interest rates, but the affordable housing to be built by Wakeland Housing and Development Corp. is separate from the rest of the project, according to Ronge.
With an initial staff of 10, MVE opened its San Diego office on the 11th floor of a 23-story office tower at 655 Broadway, taking about 1,600 square feet of space with enough room to expand into adjacent offices.
MVE ranks No. 7 on the Business Journal’s annual list of architects, reporting $28.1 million in OC in billings for the year ended June 30, 2025 (see page 18).
Investing in Downtown
Rongé said he expects the San Diego staff to grow to 15 to 20 people within the next 18 months, ultimately expanding to 25 to 30 people.
“It’s an amazing spot. We thought about where we’d like to be located in San Diego County and thought it was really important to be downtown,” Rongé said. “It allows us to be engaged in the city and have connectivity to all parts of the city.”
MVE’s San Diego office was designed with a largely open floor plan that has a board room and two private offices, which, according to Rongé, are typically used as collaborative spaces.
“The open office allows for high levels of collaboration, a lot of social interaction,” Rongé said, adding that the workplace trend is to go for a hybrid that includes open areas and breakout spaces where people can work in teams.
Downtown has been going through a rough period, posting the highest vacancy for office space in the county, but Rongé added that he’s confident that the downturn is temporary.
“The demand for downtown to be what we all want it to be is there, because you have a huge number of residents that already live down there,” Rongé said.
Most of the new construction downtown has been apartment towers. However, Rongé expects that to shift back to building for-sale condominiums.
(Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the San Diego Business Journal.)
