Some things in life are simply true without debate or worry: The Bush Administration never admits a mistake; the chemistry of the Dodgers will always break down to 25 players, 25 taxis, no matter how promising the team; and developers hate Marin County.
How do they hate it? Let me count the ways. Property is too expensive, the approval process has a positively glacial pace and the public-at-large holds builders and construction in the same regard Eliot Spitzer holds prostitutes.
Perhaps that last entry was a better example of how things change, which is certainly applicable when it comes to development in Marin. Besides the large Whole Foods mixed-use construction project in downtown Novato and the Grosvenor retail project in Southern Novato off Highway 101, there are five development projects on tap.
The most interesting may be the one furthest from fruition. Santa Rosa-based Hugh Futrell Corporation is finding just how unfriendly Marin can be when it comes to construction projects. Futrell would like to build a neighborhood-serving retail center and a Class A office building near the Marin Independent Journal, off Ignacio Boulevard in Novato. Futrell hasn’t even filed an application for the project yet, and neighbors are already up in arms. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a project before where people have shown up at the city council to protest it before we submitted an application,” says Futrell partner Bill Carle III.
Carle has already met with neighbors to listen to their concerns, but there are other issues facing the project. For instance, the city’s general plan and the master plan for the area are in conflict over how Futrell can use the property, which it’s acquiring from media giant Gannett. The neighbors know any development will increase traffic and congestion.
The company is hopeful the fact that the office building will be LEED-certified will help the neighborhood understand it’s concerned with something beyond the bottom line. Green certification shouldn’t hurt when it comes to leasing space, either.
Meanwhile, Catlin Properties is looking for a Marin office to oversee the two projects it has in the county pipeline. The builder has offices in Sacramento, Denver, Chicago and Sun Valley, and it has two projects in Novato and another waiting in the wings in Fairfax. Developmental Director Chip Fuller is gearing up to build five medical condominium buildings on San Marin in Novato as well as redeveloping an office building on Grant Avenue in downtown Novato.
Catlin’s M.O. is to buy under-performing property and either build from the ground up or redevelop to add value. The company generally holds property for its own portfolio, though in the case of the medical condos, the company is selling the units.
The office property at 999 Grant Avenue has been underused, and Fuller and company plan on doubling its 10,000-square-foot size and putting in a restaurant or retail on the ground floor with office space above.
Another project is a pair of buildings going up in the area George Lucas abandoned for his Presidio digs. Gate Capital Properties is developing the $40 million, 116,000-square-foot project on behalf of San Rafael Land Company. The project has been sitting on its approval since 2003, waiting for the local office market to tighten up a bit. The Class A space almost bagged ImageMovers Digital, a high-tech offshoot of Disney, but that company opted instead for space at Hamilton Landing, which has drawn digital companies the way Starbucks attracts java junkies.
Don’t shed too many tears for the Canal properties (where ILM was located under the radar for years), however, as the Dutra Group has signed on as a tenant. Dutra operates the quarry in San Rafael as well as a very successful marine business that’s quite active in the Sacramento Delta. The new digs should be a step up for Dutra, since a previous home was at the quarry itself (in portable buildings Marin County red tagged in 2006). Since that time, Dutra’s been shacking up in office trailers on the construction site.
Gate Capital and San Rafael Land Company have an impressive track record in Marin, having previously partnered on the 100,000-square-foot Belvedere Place office complex in Mill Valley.
Meantime, Seagate Properties and its partner, JP Morgan Investment Management, are treating downtown San Rafael business to a little noise these days, as 588 piles are driven through bay fill to reach bedrock in anticipation of construction on the final phase of the $90 million San Rafael Corporate Center. The new construction will add 240,000 square feet of Class A office space across a trio of buildings. The certified green project will also include two parking structures.
The two existing office buildings at the site were sold by Hines and Sterling American Property last year. The new office space is being built on a speculative basis, though San Rafael-based Seagate is confident it won’t have trouble leasing it after build out in 2009.
Finally, San Rafael’s own Monahan Pacific has won approval to build 82 residential condominiums on an infill site just a stone’s throw from the Marin Civic Center—if you have Vlad Guerrero doing the stone tossing.
The new condos will be built on a two-acre site where a 33,000-square-foot office building currently sits vacant. Monahan Pacific will tear the office building down to make way for the condos.
In the interest of full disclosure, the new condos will be up the street from where I sit typing this sentence and, in all probability, will make traffic in my neighborhood more difficult. On the other hand, 16 of the units will be below market rate, and I refuse to be one of the NIMBYs who say they support affordable housing as long as it goes in somebody else’s neighborhood.
