A new “high luxury” mixed-use development may be coming to a prominent intersection of La Jolla’s Village, featuring five residential units and an accessory dwelling unit, plus a restaurant on the ground floor.
An application was filed this month with the city of San Diego to demolish a 2,980-square-foot commercial building and construct a 20,925-square-foot, two-story mixed-use building over a basement at 941 and 945 Pearl St., near the intersection of Girard Avenue. The complex also would have roof decks and 15 parking spaces.
The existing commercial site housed Ogden’s Cleaners before it closed last year. At the time, manager Daniel Whang said the business was closing because the building was being sold and it “didn’t make sense” to continue operating on a month-to-month basis.
The new project is undergoing environmental review. A decision to approve, deny or modify the proposal will be made by staff of San Diego’s Development Services Department. The decision will be final unless appealed to the Planning Commission.
However, Claude Anthony Marengo of the applicant team from Marengo Morton Architects in La Jolla said there are plans to present the project to local planning groups for review and input.
It isn’t yet known when those presentations will happen, but it is expected to be in the next few months.
Marengo told the La Jolla Light that the project is in its early stages and has “a lot of moving parts.”
“We know we are going to do five residential units and we’re trying to put a restaurant on the ground floor,” he said, adding that the type of residential units has not yet been decided but they will be “high-luxury modern.”
The first floor and restaurant would technically be below street level, he said, and the 1,500-square-foot “international-style” restaurant would face both Pearl Street and Girard Avenue.
“So when you drive along Pearl Street, you are going to see the top third of the windows, and we are going to line the street with trees … which gives [the residential units] privacy from a busy street,” Marengo said.
He said the development would feature “a lot of stone and as much glass as the [La Jolla Planned District Ordinance] will allow.” ♦
