The 16-acre former post office distribution center in the Midway District has been resold for $40.05 million with plans for a $325 million, mixed-use project called The Point.
The Point is planned for the site by the buyer, a joint venture whose managing member is an affiliate of San Diego-based real estate developer Hammer Ventures. The seller was Rexford Industrial Realty LP.
Rexford Industrial Realty Inc. of Los Angeles had previously acquired the former U.S. Postal Service annex facility at 2535 Midway Drive in October 2015 with plans to redevelop the property into new industrial spaces for $19.3 million.
A Rexford statement at that time said the transaction “presented an opportunity to acquire and reposition two prominent industrial buildings in a dense, supply-constrained infill submarket in central San Diego.”
The former postal property consists of two buildings with a total of 373,000 rentable square feet on 16 acres, near the Valley View Casino Center arena in northern Point Loma.
HFF’s equity placement team, led by director Bryan Clark, worked on behalf of the buyer to arrange joint venture equity for the acquisition. Hammer Ventures was founded in 2000 and has developed property worth more than $1.5 billion.
An urban master plan is being developed for the property, which sits at the gateway to the greater Point Loma area within a short walk to Liberty Station.
Peninsulans weighing in the sale of the old post office site were cautiously optimistic about it.
“This is good news,” said Midway Community Planning Group chair Cathy Kenton. “I’m happy that, finally, this important piece of our community will be moving forward with a plan. We look forward to learning more about the proposed project from the new owners/developers.”
“When I received the news I was smiling to know that a major portion of the Midway/Loma Portal/Point Loma area was in store for another ‘major’ upgrade,” noted Anthony (The Captain) Theodore of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage on Shelter Island. “There are more upgrades on the way.”
“With the fate of the old Midway post office, you just never know what the end result will be for that location,” said Robert (Tripp) Jackson, immediate past president of the Point Loma Association. “The hope would be a use that’s compatible, and needed, in that location, surrounded by business, military housing and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. It’s centrally located, and I would think many options could be explored.”
However the former Midway central mail processing and distribution facility ends up being redeveloped, local planners want it to mesh with their community plan now being updated. Previously, immediate past MCPG chair Melanie Nickel said the neighborhood was open to “mixed use or a residential senior center on the site. “We want to be sure that whatever goes there does not make local traffic any worse than it already is,” Nickel said.
Midway planners also expressed a desire to see the redevelopment of the old postal building and environs acknowledge the aviary roots of the Dutch Flats Urban Village. Dutch Flats was once the testing grounds of San Diego aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh.