Creative offices reuse old UT building – The San Diego Union-Tribune

Ten months after the Union-Tribune moved downtown, its former building in Mission Valley has undergone a radical transformation on the way to becoming a 330,000-square-foot creative office center.

Called Ampersand, the two-building complex at Interstate 8 and state Route 163 has been gutted, its presses scrapped. Construction is moving forward this month with completion of the first phase early next year.

Carlos Carrasquillo, studio director of Wolcott Architecture Interiors in Culver City, is the designer and C.W. Driver is the contractor of the $35 million project.

Its a very visible building that everyone in San Diego seems to been touched by, said developer Casey Brown. Personally, I toured the facility when I was in the third grade, which is kind of fun. My grandparents used to bring me down to get end rolls of paper to color on. Being born and raised in San Diego, those are my experiences. The experiences that we hear are just ongoing.

The first phase involves the five-story office building on the east. With the newspaper offices interior walls, ceiling tiles and carpet removed, exterior light floods in from all directions.The exposed concrete ceiling waffle pattern and duct system will remain in view to create the cool, industrial look that appeals to young upstart companies.

The second phase, tracking about 90 days after the first, will transform the three-floor printing plant building into a U-shaped complex with 14-foot-high windows and a dramatic north-facing open-air courtyard cut out of the center. Former loading docks will become outdoor terraces and a full-scale, 8,000-square-foot gym, showers and locker rooms will be built on the southeast corner.

Other amenities will include a craft coffee cafe, valet parking, concierge services and possibly a restaurant in the former gas station and vehicle maintenance building at the southwest corner of the site.

The entrance will shift from the north to a pedestrian courtyard between the two buildings and a former outdoor cafe deck will become The Treehouse with hanging chairs and hammocks around a specimen ficus tree. There will be nine patios and 64,000 square feet of outdoor collaborative space and an amphitheater for multifunction gatherings.

A third phase will include a 130-unit apartment building on the north side of the property but its timing is flexible, depending on market conditions with several other residential projects coming online in the next couple of years.

Matt Carlson, senior vice president at CBRE brokerage, said his leasing team is fielding calls from potential tenants from all over the county who want a central location but not necessarily in downtown. He said they are asking about renting spaces from 20,000 square feet to the entire print building.

A lot of these creative-type tenants are the more collaborative type, Carlson said. They are looking for brick and timber, a different office experience.

That old-style industrial legacy is rather limited in San Diego, considering that the entire county population in 1940 totaled only about 300,000, less than a tenth of todays count.

Built in 1973, the U-T building, designed by Frank L. Hope Jr.s architectural firm and built by M.H. Golden Construction, was all brick on the outside and concrete on the inside. The print building is as strong as a bomb shelter, Carlson said, because it had to take the load of the presses and other equipment.

Theres just nothing like it, he said. Not only is it perfectly located and has a large block of space, theres not a lot of new (office) construction. Its totally unique compared to any other offering thats out there.

Casey said the project is being developed in the shadow of many others throughout Mission Valley.

The biggest, of course, is the potential redevelopment of the Qualcomm Stadium site into a soccer-driven, mixed-use complex.

But major plans already are approved for transforming the Riverwalk Golf Course into housing and Westfield has indicated long-term interest in adding residential and other uses at its Mission Valley mall.

Civita is building out its 4,780-unit housing project with some retail and office and a major public park between SR163 and Interstate 805.

Brown has been active in downtown development but sees Mission Valley as a land of opportunity as well.

We think there will be more room to run here than in most of the other markets, he said. Its been passed over.

He acknowledged that traffic can be a problem at rush hour and winter rains can cause isolating flooding. But he said the Ampersand location has escaped relatively unscathed and the residential uses planned around it will generate less traffic than the offices currently in place.

Carlson said tenants employees will like the easy access to the trolley lines and bike and walking trails along the San Diego River. Its the same story for other in-town neighborhoods that surround the central business district.

People are living and working in those areas because its easier than being in Carmel Valley, he said.

roger.showley@sduniontribune.com; (619) 293-1286; Twitter: @rogershowley

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Creative offices reuse old UT building - The San Diego Union-Tribune