By Ken Williams | Editor

Morgan Gilman has been in the news lately, and it hasn’t been his doing. The longtime owner of the Gilman building, located at the Hillcrest gateway intersection of University and Sixth avenues, tells San Diego Uptown News his side of the story about whether his property could be part of any redevelopment at the Pernicano site.

Pernicano family representative Sherman D. Harmer Jr., president of Urban Housing Partners, has been speaking this summer before community groups in Hillcrest to float ideas for the long-vacant property and gather input on what people want to see on that site. Harmer stunned listeners at the Uptown Planners meeting on Aug. 4 when he said potential buyers of the Pernicano property were also negotiating to purchase the Gilman building.

Gilman, a real estate developer who heads the Morgan Gilman Co. in Carmel, California, acknowledged that several developers who have been looking at the Pernicano property have contacted him. He also dropped the big news that he just signed a lease to rent out the old Harvey Milk’s/City Deli site, which anchors the Gilman building and takes up more than half the block on University. Gilman said he was not at liberty to reveal his new tenant, and said it would not be another restaurant but would be related to the “service industry.”

But few people have as clear an insight into what might be happening to the Pernicano property than Gilman. Rumors were rife over the Labor Day weekend that there never was a buyer for the Pernicano property, as Uptown News received emails and texts from readers wondering whether the community had been fooled. Gilman confirmed that several months ago he talked to several developers who were interested in the Pernicano project, but could not reveal their identities due to confidentiality concerns.

Harmer addressed those rumors on Tuesday, Sept. 8, in an email reply to Uptown News and updated the community on the latest developments.

“We announced at the Uptown Planners meeting last week [Sept. 1] that we have put on hold escrow discussions with developers,” Harmer stated. “It is too hard to contract with a developer with the zoning conditions being in a state of flux due to the current Community Plan amendment processing through the Uptown Planners right now.

“The Pernicano family is continuing to secure the entitlements with their own finances. Including our proposals for the Pernicano property in with the Community Plan amendment will surely speed up the approval process,” he continued.

“The [city] Planning Department expects approval next summer for the EIR [environmental impact report] and the Community Plan amendment. Urban Housing Partners is moving ahead at full speed with massing and conceptual design concepts for review by the public,” Harmer concluded.

Gilman said Harmer’s comments “make sense. You need height and density exemptions to make a project of this magnitude to work.” Hillcrest’s height restrictions of 65 feet always stir passionate debate whenever exemptions are sought.

The Pernicano property includes a boarded-up building fronting Fifth Avenue, a parking lot in the middle of Sixth Avenue and the Pernicano’s restaurant on Sixth Avenue that has been closed for 30 years. That property is about 25,000 square feet and has access to two of the most prominent streets on the west side of Hillcrest. But potential buyers are eager to have frontage on University Avenue — the main east-west thoroughfare through Hillcrest — because it would allow developers to create a blockbuster gateway to the community coming off the state Route 163 exit onto Sixth Avenue. Adding the Gilman property would double the footprint to 50,000 square feet.

“I did look at one plan that was intriguing,” Gilman said. “It was an impact project. It was a mixed-use project with a boutique hotel, condos, retail space with community use integrated into it.”

Gilman said the plan combined the two properties as well as another lot on Fifth Avenue that was contiguous. He was unsure which lot that was, however.

“All the vehicle access to the property was off Sixth Avenue,” he said. “Parking was off Sixth. The lobbies of the hotel and condos were off Sixth. It was the perfect scenario. It has a second level plaza with outdoor dining. I looked at this plan very carefully.”

Gilman said Hillcrest lacks a major building “that sets the tone” for the future, and this plan would have done that.

“We have the unique opportunity to define Hillcrest,” he said. “A community only gets a few opportunities in one’s lifetime to create such a project. You have a wide street in University. Sixth Avenue comes off the 163. Fifth Avenue is a major street. This is the only commercial property on the west side of Hillcrest that can truly define a community. Because of its location, the impact of a project this large will be minimal on residential neighbors … but then you have enough acreage to do something truly special. To do it right, you have to have density. If you don’t, you have mass and you don’t get plazas and public spaces. It’s the only thing that makes economic sense.”

To those in the community who want to designate the Gilman building as historic, Gilman isn’t so sure that he agrees with them.

“What is historic?” he asked rhetorically. “I’m not sure it is or isn’t. It was built early enough to be one of the older buildings in Hillcrest, but does it have value historically?”

He said the community needs to have vision, walking a fine line between preservation and embracing change.

Gilman believes the Pernicano project must get exemptions from the 65-foot height restriction to be financially feasible and architecturally striking. “You have to create height to have open spaces on this particular property,” he said.

Some people in the community agree that a taller building at this site will help draw attention away from the AT&T building — an eyesore that stands 140 feet — which is not going to go away anytime soon because it houses infrastructure that controls much of the company’s telecommunications network for Uptown and Downtown. Putting a dramatic building complex across the street from the ugly AT&T building would focus attention away from it; often the first thing you see exiting the 163 into Hillcrest.

Gilman said the Pernicano project is “needed to revitalize the commercial core … it will bring storefronts, restaurants, outdoor dining, and an open plaza on the second level that will be fed by hotel guests, condo residents and the public. It will create a community room for everyone to share.

“If you allow enough height, enough space and enough public space, you create a focal point for the community. The larger the project, the more amenities the public gets. But if they end up with a 65-foot limit, all you are going to get is a building mass that nobody wants.”

Although Gilman rarely visits San Diego, he said he strongly hopes that Hillcrest finally gets a building that will put the community on the map. Critics of the “do nothing” mentality among some local leaders say Hillcrest has fallen behind North Park, East Village and Little Italy in creating destination locations.

“This project,” Gilman said, “has the potential to define Hillcrest.”

—Ken Williams is editor of Uptown News and Mission Valley News and can be reached at [email protected] or at 619-961-1952. Follow him on Twitter at KenSanDiego, Instagram account at KenSD or Facebook at KenWilliamsSanDiego.