ONWARD AND UPWARD
BY AMELIA RODRIGUEZ D Sea Breeze Properties invests $2 billion into a vibrant downtown for all of North County
arren Levitt wants you to walk to work. And happy hour. Then he’d like you to meander over to the market, drop your cold cuts and produce at home, and stroll to the climbing gym for a little bouldering. Might as well head
to dinner on foot, too. “[In North County,] our town squares are the grocery store parking lot,” says Levitt, vice president at Sea Breeze Properties. “That’s where you might bump into your neighbor.” Sea Breeze hopes to change that—by transforming 200 acres of land just north of CSU San Marcos (CSUSM) into a pedestrian-friendly, urban downtown called North City. The $2 billion development will eventually bring a total of 3,400 new residential units to housing-crunched San Diego County. It’ll also have 345,000 square feet of retail space, a hotel with 250-plus rooms, and up to a million square feet of offices and labs. “[North City] will draw all of North County to San Marcos someday,” says Tess Sangster, community and economic development director for the city of San Marcos. Sea Breeze first started acquiring land in 2004, but the majority of construction has taken place in the last decade, adding 10 buildings to the area east of Twin Oaks Valley Road. Sea Breeze teamed up with CSUSM to extend the campus to North City, building student housing, classrooms, and a dining hall. A pedestrian bridge connects these new additions to the main school grounds. But North City, Levitt emphasizes, is not a college town. Sea Breeze aims to make the area attractive to people at varying life stages—and create an environment where CSUSM grads can put their diploma to work right away in one of the offices or companies that call the area home. Rather than bringing in big-box stores, Sea Breeze courts small businesses and regional chains, including local cider house Newtopia Cyder, craft coffee spot Copa Vida, and indoor climbing gym Mesa Rim. “We’re not in a rush to fully lease all of our retail space,” Levitt explains. “It’s about picking the right [business] that’s going to add a sense of vibrancy and another use that doesn’t already exist.” The development also provides a launching pad for new companies, like family-owned ice cream shop Wynston’s. Founders Chris and Sarah Wynn incubated their business at Union Cowork’s North City location, wheeling tubs of ice
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