Jay Goldstone will stay on as a special advisor to the mayor, overseeing two massive redevelopment projects after he steps down as San Diego's interim chief operating officer on Nov. 1.
Goldstone,
"When Mayor Gloria asked me to be the interim COO, I thought I would be in the position for six months, now here we are 23 or 24 months later," Goldstone said.
Gloria has selected Eric Dargan, who is relocating from Texas, to replace Goldstone as of Nov. 1. Dargan is currently the COO of the Houston Public Works Department.
"I'm honored to have been selected to help Mayor Todd Gloria carry out his big plans for this beautiful city," Dargan said when his selection was announced on July 28.
As a special advisor, Goldstone, will continue to be paid as an hourly employee based on his COO salary. He was also an hourly employee with no benefits as interim COO, in his second stint in that position for San Diego under Gloria.
Goldstone had also worked as CFO, and then COO, for former Mayor Jerry Sanders for seven years.
The two projects that Goldstone will be working on are the Midway Sports Arena Redevelopment and the Civic Center Revitalization Project.
The Civic Center project is a six-block redevelopment in downtown San Diego that includes City Hall, city office buildings, a fire station, a civic theater and a parking structure. It also includes an office building the city just acquired as part of a lawsuit.
"We are in the early stages of deciding how we want to proceed," Goldstone said.
At the outset of any redevelopment project, San Diego, like other California cities, has to be mindful of what is permitted under the Surplus Land Act. A law
"If this committee decided let's not build housing, let's just make it a civic center — that would not be permitted under the Surplus Land Act," Goldstone said.
The city will go through the process of deciding exactly what should be part of the project, hold community input meetings, and then undergo a request for qualifications process with developer teams.
On the Midway Sports Arena Redevelopment, which is further along, the teams included an affordable housing developer, a market rate housing developer and an arena developer. Five development teams submitted proposals and the City Council on Sept. 6 selected a team called Midway Rising. The members of Midway Rising are Zepher, a market rate housing developer; Chelsea Investment Corp., an affordable housing developer, and Legends Global Development, the sports arena developer.
San Diego won't be going after a major league hockey or basketball team for the Midway project, Goldstone said.
"We have two minor league teams, one hockey and one indoor soccer that play in the current arena, but its major draw is to host large concerts," Goldstone said. "The project includes a 15,000- to 17,000-seat arena that can attract some big name performers."
Both of those projects will be multi-year efforts, but Goldstone said, unlike the COO position, the job will be part-time and he can work remotely.
The Civic Center project was also the subject of several lawsuits, because of a dispute over the office building at 101 Ash Street.
The city reached a
The city paid $85.999 million for 101 Ash and $45.882 million for Civic Center Plaza. Both equated to the balance due per the original deal negotiated under former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer. Cisterra Development, the developer/owner, has agreed to return $7.5 million, which represent his profits on 101 Ash.
The settlement also enables the city to move forward on redevelopment of that area of downtown San Diego, where nearly 2,500 office employees work — most of them in substandard buildings that need hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs and upgrades, according to the mayor's office.
Gloria asked Goldstone to stay on as special advisor, partly because Dargan will have enough to do familiarizing himself with San Diego operations given he is relocating from Texas, Goldstone said.
"I have been involved in these projects," Goldstone said. "I was the city's lead negotiator on the settlement agreement."
