SAN DIEGO — The city of San Marcos is being tapped for a mixed-use project that Shaheen Sadeghi believes will showcase “the next generation of retail.”
Sadeghi, the head of LAB Holding LLC, and the developer of iconic Orange County retail projects like The Lab and Camp centers in his company’s hometown of Costa Mesa, as well as the Anaheim Packing House, is aiming to start construction this August on a nearly 60,000-square-foot project in the San Diego County city that will emphasize “micro-manufacturing.”
Nearly 50 operators are planned for the retail development, which aims to “celebrate the artisans in a social environment,” Sadeghi told the Business Journal.
“We want to eliminate the middleman, so that manufacturers and handcrafters can sell directly to the consumer.”
Burning Man Vibes
Think of the new concept as “Burning Man meets retail,” Sadeghi said. “We want to create a village for small businesses.”
He envisions local musical instrument makers, farmers, and other hyper-local small businesses taking spots at the project, alongside restaurants, coffee shops and additional fare whose operators have close ties to the community.
Sadeghi said that the project is meant to appeal to people looking for carefully crafted items made on-site where they can watch artisans at work.
“Every eight to 10 years, the retail world changes,” Sadeghi said.
“Now, we feel that micro-manufacturing is the future. Much of the innovation is coming from small businesses.”
San Diego Debut
The project, as of yet unnamed, is set to be built on an 11-acre site on Grand Avenue along Route 78, about 20 miles inland from Carlsbad.
“We feel like it’s going to be a really exciting development for that part of San Marcos. It’s been an underused part of San Marcos,” said Tess Sangster, the city’s community and economic development director.
“For us, it’s the last undeveloped piece of property along the 78, so we really wanted something special to go there,” Sangster said. “We’ve had a lot of offers to do traditional retail, like a mall or a drive-thru or a chain hotel. We wanted something really unique for that area.”
The project’s been in the works for about five years, and received city entitlements at the end of 2023, according to Sadeghi. It’ll be the first project in San Diego County for LAB, whose name is short for Little American Businesses.
CalPac Housing
The project’s seen revisions in recent years, a result of changing trends in the wake of the pandemic.
The biggest change is the inclusion of a housing element to the project: It will have 102 condominiums and seven live-work units, alongside its core commercial space.
“They’ve been really massaging the design during COVID, figuring out how it’s going to work,” Sangster said. “They ended up bringing in the residential part and kind of reworking their design.”
Another Orange County company, Irvine-based California Pacific Homes, has been tapped to head the residential component of the project, according to Sadeghi.
It’ll be one of the few projects outside OC for CalPac, which has historically done most of its work on the Irvine Ranch. The builder’s chief executive, Cary Bren, is the son of Irvine Co. chairman Donald Bren.
The development would be divided into two sections, a commercial side and a residential side, separated by an existing creek. A pedestrian bridge would span the creek connecting the two sides.
The commercial portion will have 14 separate structures organized around a series of gardens that would include areas for outdoor dining, a creek trail, musical performances and community activities.
“The core of the project is bringing people together,” Sadeghi said. “There’s going to be a lot of public art.”
Community Development
While different from prior LAB projects, there’s a similarity in purpose, according to Sadeghi.
“We’re into neighborhood development and community development. We’re not a shopping center developer,” Sadeghi said. “If somebody wants just a Starbucks center or storage or what have you, I don’t think we’re the right people.”
LAB projects are “handcrafted,” Sadeghi said. “We work with mom and pops, local artisans only. We don’t do national tenants, so it’s not a traditional deal.”
“When I started the business, it was all about creating a platform, a village for small operators that don’t want to be in a mall,” Sadeghi said. “They don’t want to be next to a Gucci, or they don’t want to be next to a 7-Eleven.”
Sadeghi said that he hopes to start construction on the San Marcos project in August, and that it should take about 18 months to complete “if everything goes smoothly.”
Sadeghi declined to say what the project will cost, with final designs still to be completed.
Ray Huard is a reporter with sister publication San Diego Business Journal.
