Pacific Beach’s oldest coffee house could be a casualty of a new residential elder-care facility proposed at the corner of Cass Street and Grand Avenue.
The Pacific Beach Plan Group (PBPG) voted Aug. 27 to sanction plans for a 65-unit, 55,968-square-foot residential elder-care facility at 4322 Cass St. near Javanican, would displace The Purple Café, which the developers of Oakmont Senior Living say would be replaced by their project and house up to 80 residents.
Bill Mabry, a partner with Oakmont involved in project development, told planners his firm has built nearly 40 senior residential-care facilities throughout California since the 1980s, including one operating in Escondido.
Mabry said the new planned seniors structure would go where The Purple Café is and the adjoining empty lot where the defunct dive shop used to operate.
“It makes sense for us to develop here, and we’ve come up with a design that we think people would really enjoy and fit the pedestrian orientation of the area,” Mabry said, adding a new coffee shop is now planned as part of their corner redevelopment.
An architect for the seniors project said it will have “modern lines” and include a courtyard, landscaping and underground parking.
“The design team and the owners have been meeting with us for three years and working with our community,” said PBPG Development Subcommittee chairman Curtis Patterson.
PBPG colleague Chris Olson said, “There wasn’t going to be a coffee shop” in the original design, adding developers “have pretty much complied with everything we’ve asked. They’ve done a nice job of listening to our concerns.”
Planner Eve Anderson, noting she’s had personal experience with senior-care facilities, said she felt this one is “too close to the beach.
“The building is lovely but the location is questionable,” Anderson said, adding it’s near bars that are open until 2 a.m. “This isn’t a great location for seniors. The facility is gorgeous, but they just need to pick it up and move it somewhere else.”
Planner Imelda McClendon disagreed that the proposed seniors facility was inappropriate for the neighborhood.
“We’re trying to make Pacific Beach more family oriented, and to me this is a great project to start that process,” she said.
The PBPG voted in favor of the senior-care project 14-4-1.
