San Diego Commercial Real Estate 🏣

L.A.’s Notorious Trio of Graffiti-Covered Skyscrapers Finally Finds a Buyer New owner is expected to spend more than $1.2 billion to acquire and complete a project long seen as a symbol of downtown’s decline. Work at the site stalled in 2019, when its former Chinese owner ran into financial trouble after pouring more than $1 billion into the residential, hotel and retail development. wsj.com/real-estate/co… by @KCarliniKing @pkwsj via @WSJ

Tech exec bets on downtown San Diego with purchase of 2 office towers A former SoftBank executive has purchased downtown office towers 1 Columbia Place and 2 Columbia Place with the stated goal of boosting the local economy. Golden Columbia LLC purchased 1 Columbia Place, a 27-story skyscraper at 401 W. A St., and 2 Columbia Place, a 12-story tower, at 1230 Columbia St. enewspaper.sandiegouniontribune.com/infinity/artic… by @jbruin via @SDUT

Historic Spreckels Building, Theater in Downtown San Diego will be auctioned off Baroque-style landmark listed online, with bids starting at $5M on March 23 rimarketplace.com/auction/3019/l… enewspaper.sandiegouniontribune.com/infinity/artic… by @jbruin via @SDUT

SBA to block green card holders Small-business loan program to tighten eligibility March 1 Last year, it tightened a requirement that businesses applying for loans must be 100% owned by U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or lawful permanent residents, up from a 51% standard. enewspaper.sandiegouniontribune.com/infinity/artic… by @Maetron via @SDUT

ICE buys warehouses for mass detention network, rattling locals The Trump administration has moved to acquire industrial buildings in at least eight states. @DHSgov bought two this month: one in Maryland for $102 million and another in Arizona for $70 million. wapo.st/49ZKA7W by @jocwapo @dmac1 via @washingtonpost

The @CityofSanDiego could save a ton of money if it relocates City Hall A new study estimates that the city could save more than $325 million, over 20 years, if it buys a new City Hall building instead of fixing the existing one. The report also looks at the overall economic impact of a completely redeveloped Civic Center. The report — prepared by urban planning firm @U3Advisors downtownsandiego.org/wp-content/upl… is nearly two years in the making, building on the Prebys Foundation’s @prebysfound initial commitment in April 2024 to fund a big-picture vision for the city’s Civic Center real estate. enewspaper.sandiegouniontribune.com/infinity/artic… by @jbruin via @SDUT

Prominent La Jolla-area hotel sells at discount The Embassy Suites by Hilton San Diego La Jolla has been sold to a Los Angeles-based investment company for $111 million—slightly more than half the price of just four years ago. enewspaper.sandiegouniontribune.com/infinity/artic… by @LoriWeisberg via @SDUT

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2026. 🥂 As we step into 2026, the focus in commercial real estate is clear: stability, innovation, and strategic growth. After a year of transition in 2025, we are looking forward to helping our clients navigate the opportunities this new year brings. Wishing you and your business a prosperous and successful 2026! #CommercialRealEstate #CRE2026 #NewYear #RealEstateInvesting #SanDiego

WOW! Canada’s $1 Billion Question: Do Property Rights Still Exist in British Columbia? Provincial court ruling says indigenous groups can reclaim ownership of land taken from them scores of years ago. The ruling has roiled the wealthy districts of the greater Vancouver area, one of the most expensive real-estate markets in the world. Its scope has shocked businesses, homeowners and community leaders, who fear that it nullifies the principle of “indefeasible title,” the legal term for absolute certainty of land ownership, setting a precedent that threatens billions in real-estate investment. wsj.com/world/americas… by @vipalmonga via @WSJ

Vacancies for San Diego life science office space hit record highs. Here’s who’s taking advantage Asking prices for rent have fallen for 13 consecutive quarters The region’s core cluster vacancy rate is a record 31.2%, up from 20.4% a year ago sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/12/17/vac… via @SDUT

Commercial Real Estate Is Getting Too Cheap to Ignore After years of low returns, some portfolio managers are rethinking their commercial-property holdings Poor commercial real estate. Fewer investors want to touch it after being burned by falling property values in recent years. They have better options anyway. Why settle for 7% annual returns on real estate when Nvidia is delivering 70%? Yet property is one of the last assets in the U.S. that looks fairly priced and could turn out to be a place to hide if there is an artificial-intelligence bubble. wsj.com/real-estate/co… via @WSJ

Office-to-Residential Conversions Are Booming and New York Is the Epicenter Over the past two decades, developers in New York have converted nearly 30 million square feet of office space into residential living, with the pace of transformation picking up in recent years. Most office buildings were considered too wide and mechanically complex to repurpose into apartments with kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms. But New York developers are solving those problems with new architectural hacks—cut-through notches, carved light wells, and strategic wall-offs of interior cores that create space for new residential floors. wsj.com/real-estate/co… by @brian_mcgill @petergrantwsj via @WSJ

Sony sells Rancho Bernardo campus to firm for $67.4M Completed in 2009, the @Sony Electronics headquarters, referred to as Innovation Centre in marketing materials, includes the 11-story tower with 461,000 square feet of office space on a 7.9-acre site at Via Del Campo and Via Esprillo. The electronics company spent $150 million to build the property, which was completed in 2009. enewspaper.sandiegouniontribune.com/infinity/artic… by @jbruin via @SDUT

Optimism takes a hit as small businesses navigate elevated uncertainty Many cite growing labor and sales concerns Small business owners became a little less optimistic in October, according to the @NFIB monthly survey, as uncertainty over business conditions remains elevated. The federation's Small Business Optimism Index fell to 98.2, its lowest reading since April and well below the post-election peak of 105.1 reached in December 2024. Still, small business optimism remains higher than its average of 94.9 from 2020 through 2024. costar.com/article/348166… by @chuckmcshane via @CoStarGroup

San Diego County Office construction at a standstill Local slump since 2024 linked to high vacancy, low demand “It’s the first time in over 10 years that we haven’t had anything currently under construction.” enewspaper.sandiegouniontribune.com/infinity/artic… by @jbruin via @SDUT

With sale, Irvine Company exits downtown San Diego One America Plaza, the city’s tallest, most distinctive skyscraper has sold for $120M The 658,000-square-foot, 2.9-acre property, near Santa Fe Depot traded for less than half of what Irvine Company paid for the property nearly 20 years ago. The firm paid $285.4 million in 2006. Built in 1991, the 34-story, 500-foot-tall office tower at 600 W. Broadway is San Diego’s tallest skyscraper. Designed by renowned postmodern architect Helmut Jahn, One America Plaza is also one of downtown’s most distinctive skyscrapers, with a roof that the new owner refers to as “the screwdriver.” Amid Irvine Company’s retreat from downtown, the firm has doubled down on University City, where the city’s recently approved community plan has created legal space for more than 30,000 additional residential units. enewspaper.sandiegouniontribune.com/infinity/artic… by @jbruin via @SDUT

Jamie Dimon Wants Everyone in the Office. Is a $3 Billion Building the Answer? The CEO of @JPMorgan Chase spent six years putting his stamp on a shiny new headquarters, a skyscraper that he hopes will revive the glory of the office. Dimon’s stance is clear. He has delivered expletive-laden broadsides against remote meetings, declaring that the only way to work is together, in person, the old-fashioned way. And so he has built one of the most expensive towers in America, extending a quarter-mile into the sky, and filled it with 19 Danny Meyer @dhmeyer-approved eateries, coffee shops, a company store, a gym and Morgan’s, the English pub where he hopes bankers will commune after-hours. wsj.com/finance/bankin… by @ajsaeedy @realchrismaggio via @WSJ

That's a good use for the space! From warehouse to high rise: How downtown San Diego’s New School transformed former WeWork space into a campus. @NewSchoolArch moved into its new building, students and all, over a three-month period in the spring. Cubbies used for @WeWork renters were turned into faculty offices and office space designed for business meetings became classrooms. sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/10/17/fro… by @PhillipMolnar via @SDUT