In the late 1980s, when mixed-use in the Gaslamp Quarter was merely a glimmer in this sleepy city's young eyes, Bill Shrader, the founder of Burnham Real Estate's Urban Retail Group, seized the opportunity, much to the chagrin of his superiors.
"Actually I was advised against it by Burnham's management at the time that it would never be successful," he said. "And I was probably dumb enough not to listen to them. "So basically that led to leasing virtually every retail and restaurant in Gaslamp from that day forward."
Today, Shrader estimates he has worked on approximately 90 percent of the leases in the Gaslamp. And his small entrepreneurial idea has expanded to something much larger. At Burnham, it's known as the Urban Retail Group, and, Shrader said, it's revolutionizing the local real estate market.
"It made us provide the full service of consulting," he said, "leasing retail space and then implementing -- in the case of condominiums -- we pioneered selling the commercial condominium as a net leased investment."
The team of six works to embed mixed-use development into projects throughout the county. First, it was the Gaslamp Quarter. East Village is URG's next target.
"The next wave certainly will be East Village," he said. "Partly because that has the most developable land, so you know it's a matter of time before it gets built out."
Besides Shrader's professional reliance on mixed-use, he has a personal affinity for the development style. He points to other major cities as evidence that mixed-use works, and works well.
"When I go to great cities like Chicago or San Francisco or New York or Seattle, you can just feel the vibrancy when you are in those areas, strolling down the street, seeing the different shops, with the merchants selling their different products, the people on the streets, the excitement about it, the buzz about it," he said. "And seeing that that's what we're going to become in San Diego is really what is exciting to me."
Shrader notes a change in San Diego's values when it comes to development. As the county sprawls, he said, people are continuously recognizing the need for making urban areas more compact and efficient.
"What's changed is that now it's cool," he said. "Urban and mixed-use is really where we are going in Southern California and the western U.S. "Population growth is not slowing down and, we're running out of land."
Shrader said he used to attend conferences where all the attendees would rave about suburban development. Not so anymore, he said -- gas prices and a lack of land has changed everything: "Now, it's all about mixed-use."
And although Shrader is pleased with the progress the Gaslamp has made since the late 1980s, he thinks there is much more work to be done. When he looks at the streets of downtown, he doesn't see a finished project -- he sees opportunity.
"When I look at things, I keep thinking about how you can make it better," he said. "We've done so well over the last 20 years, but there's still so much more that can be done.
"As San Diego grows and matures as a city, our downtown's just going to become that much better. We already have the natural beauty. But now we're going to have all the amenities that make a great city."
Press ESC | Close [X]
