Downtown San Pedro’s construction plans for a mid-rise development on the cleared former courthouse property have run into financing delays, prompting discussions about interim uses at a downtown development panel meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 7.
In the planning stages for several years, the 8-story mixed-use building — Acqua Via at San Pedro — was set to begin construction “soon,” officials announced in June 2023, and would take about 28 months to complete.
The development, 505 S. Centre St., would feature a ground floor public food hall named Union Hall and 300 apartments, with 20% of those set aside as affordable units.
The tentative completion would be sometime in 2025.
But there’s been something of a “long COVID” effect on the financial market, which stalled the development and “effectively, the market shut down,” said Bill Cockrum, senior managing partner and president of Genton Cockrum Partners.
The $200 million project was ready to launch when instability hit the wider real estate market.
Wild swings in those markets combined with rising interest rates caused a massive pause in building and transactions, a decrease in valuations, vacancies in office and apartment buildings, and rattled investors who literally “put their pencils down” to see how things would shake out, Cockrum said.
The worst appears to be over, though, Cockrum said, and “we are ready to go,” with building permits possibly at the beginning of 2025.
But the past fallout has left the large plot of vacant land where San Pedro’s courthouse once stood still empty, which prompted discussions among San Pedro’s downtown managers this week.
A discussion about the stalled development at Wednesday’s San Pedro Property Owners’ Alliance meeting included speculation on finding an interim use for the property in the meantime.
“Boots on the ground for construction might take a couple more years,” Executive Director Ryan Blaney said in a telephone interview following the panel’s discussion about using the property as a temporary park, gathering place or location for events such as Dia de los Muertos or First Thursday food trucks.
But Cockrum, in a telephone interview later, said that while they are willing to work with those ideas, there are liability issues and costs that could come into play.
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Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn issued a written statement on Wednesday about the stalled project:
“While I am disappointed that the developer, Genton Cockrum Partners, hasn’t been able to secure the financing to build this project that has been promised to the community for years, their latest contract extension goes through the end of this year,” she said. “In the meantime, people are hoping this lot can be used by the community while it sits empty and it is up to Genton Cockrum Partners to make that happen.”
Even during a June 2023 interview with the Southern California News Group, Cockrum said the construction climate was becoming challenging.
From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was followed by high construction costs, staff shortages and an uncertain economy that already was seeing rising interest rates, new construction, he said, was facing a difficult time and growing expenses.
At that time, the expectation was that construction would begin by the end of summer or in September 2023.
“We’ve been at this (business) for 30 years,” Cockrum said at that time, referring to the the ebb and flow of the economic and construction environment, “so we’ve been through a few cycles.”
Original plans are still in place. Those plans call for a food hall with full kitchens and food vendors on the ground floor, with separate inside spaces for live music, gaming and golf swing suites. An all-union building agreement is in place. The overall vision has always been to activate the corner at Sixth and Centre streets while creating an anchor tenant for downtown.
The building proposal is the key to future plans to bring more people into the historic downtown area, said SPPOA board member Warren Gunter.
But he’s not blaming the developer, Gunter said, adding that Los Angeles County — which has maintained ownership of the land — also carries responsibility to move the development forward.
