4th and B, the long-closed downtown concert venue, is being razed for a hotel and office tower

Empty for nearly a decade, 4th and B, the once-famous live music venue located on the same block as downtown San Diego’s decaying California Theater, is being bulldozed by a developer who proposes to erect in its place a slim 32-story tower.

Lida Group Holdings, Inc., a real estate developer based in Tokyo, Japan, acquired the 0.34-acre, 15,063-square-foot lot at 345 B Street in March 2016 for $7.5 million, public records show.

More recently, the foreign firm has been working with Carrier Johnson + CULTURE, a well-known local architect outfit, to design a 402-foot tower with 57,807 square feet of office space, 301 hotel rooms and 38 parking spaces, according to preliminary project plans submitted in June to the San Diego Department of Development Services and reviewed by the Union-Tribune.

The Japanese developer, indirectly contacted for comment through his architect, declined to participate in this report.

The mixed-use tower project has not yet been submitted for official consideration, meaning city staff have only reviewed draft plans and provided feedback to the developer, said Brian Schoenfisch, who heads the Division. Urban city. Although the project has not been formally reviewed or approved, required building permits will only need staff approval, as long as the project design is consistent with the downtown development code, he said.

Meanwhile, the demolition of the 4th and B is already underway. The developer received a demolition permit for the site in July, a Department of Development Services spokesman said. In early August, the company’s contractor, AMG Demolition, put up construction fencing on the west and south sides of the property and began dismantling the interior of the building. Some exterior works are now visible to passersby.

The dismantling comes nearly 10 years after the 21,000-square-foot entertainment venue closed its doors.

The low-profile, windowless building was originally built in 1985, according to real estate agency CoStar. It shares a block with the California Theater building and an Ace parking lot.

The building was first used as a bank before being transformed into a popular music destination. On November 30, 1995, after receiving a $1 million renovation, the 4th and B debuted with a sold-out Crosby, Stills & Nash concert, according to a Union-Tribune report at the time. The 1,500-seat venue has played host to a long list of A-list artists during its 17-year history, including Norah Jones, BB King, Duran Duran, Willie Nelson, Social Distortion, Wu Tang Clan and Kings of Leon.

The concert venue abruptly closed in December 2012, when the building’s tenants were evicted for non-payment of rent. In 2013, two Los Angeles club owners took over the lease and set out to reopen the venue as Avalon San Diego, but their plans never materialized. 4th and B has sat vacant ever since, collecting dust and attracting unwanted activity next to the abandoned California Theater building at the corner of Fourth Ave. and C Street.

The replacement tower, as envisioned in Carrier Johnson + CULTURE’s detailed architectural plans, is tall and slender, with an open-air seating area on the ground floor, separate lobbies for hotel visitors and offices on the second floor, and a service deck on level eight. The plans highlight the use of offices on levels three through seven, 23 levels of hotel rooms above the service deck, and a banquet center on the top floor. The plans also call for 38 parking spaces spread over two levels of an underground garage.

Lida’s goal is to start construction in the second quarter of 2023, said Claudia Escala, who is the president of Carrier Johnson + CULTURE.

The plan, which is preliminary and could still change substantially, should be reviewed with its location next to the California Theater building, which is up for sale, said property analyst Gary London, director of London Moeder Advisors.

The 95-year-old California Theater building at 1122 Fourth Avenue has been closed since 1990 and has been contemplated for demolition or restoration by various ownership groups over the years. The most recent owner, Australian company Caydon Property Group, got approval for a hotel and condominium project in 2021. However, the company put the lot up for sale before it went bankrupt in late July. The property is being liquidated by Australian receiver McGrathNicol Restructuring.

Ace’s surface lot, west of 4th and B, has two different owners. The northern half, a 0.23-acre parcel, is owned by Hall Fish Investments, which purchased the land in 1987, according to information provided by the county assessor’s office. An entity by the name of 1131 Third Ave LLC owns the southern portion of the 0.23-acre parking lot along Third Avenue. The owner bought the property in 2009 for $3.5 million, according to the county assessor’s office.

“The obvious question is: why doesn’t the owner (of 4th and B) get together with the California Theater people and the parking lot owners and do a real block-wide project? London said. “There is no harm in negotiating a prorated (proportional) agreement for each of the parties, in order to create a true mixed-use project that really speaks volumes.”

Not developing the entire block — bordered by B and C streets, and Third and Fourth Avenues — is a missed opportunity, he said.

Plans for the new project come at a time when the pace of hotel development has been somewhat slow, though one major exception is the massive 1,600-room convention hotel on the Chula Vista Bay, which has only just begun construction. Recently. Last year, just four hotels with 376 rooms opened in the county, compared to eight properties with 1,015 rooms in 2020, according to a report by Orange County-based brokerage Atlas Hospitality Group.

In the first half of this year, only one 10-room hotel, the Brick Hotel in Oceanside, has opened. And very few are under construction. In addition to the Chula Vista hotel, the 145-room AC Hotel in downtown San Diego is nearing completion, with a possible opening later this year. Although a Ritz Carlton has long been planned as part of a $400 million project known as 7th and Market, the developer, Cisterra, has yet to break ground on the downtown development.

Atlas Hospitality Chairman Alan Reay predicts a continued slowdown in new construction, given the rising interest rate environment, which could persist for the next 24-36 months.