12/12/2022 – SD Transcript
Daily Transcript Staff Report

While the major mixed-use development Seaport San Diego is a long way from realization, it has already won a Gold Award for evolving projects from the International Council of Shopping Centers.

The 1HWY1 Partnership, led by Yehudi "Gaf" Gaffen, Jeff Jacobs and Jeffrey Essakow. is developing the project. The team called the award the latest milestone for the projected $3.6 billion project on the Port of San Diego's tidelands.
The award was in the "innovation and aspiration in the new developments" category.

Seaport San Diego's master architect James Mellor, principal of CallisonRTKL Inc., accepted the award on behalf of the project team.

"Seaport is really a love letter for San Diego—a once-in-a-lifetime project—and we are grateful to ICSC for recognizing the passion and quality of this innovative design in enhancing public access and economic development for this cherished site," he said in a statement. "We have had tremendous momentum this year and we are excited about where it's going as we advance this truly world-class waterfront for our beautiful San Diego Bay."
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ICSC highlighted Seaport San Diego's design for dramatically increasing coastal access, recreational space, activities, and water views of San Diego Bay while providing improved commercial fishing facilities and creating unique features, including an iconic observation tower, aquarium, learning center and Blue Tech Innovation Center.

The mixed-use development as planned would also include retail, hotels ranging from luxury to hostels, and an event center, among other components.

"This design provides contemporary experiences designed to prioritize accessible waterfront recreation with 16-plus acres of open space," ICSC stated in the video accompanying the award presentation.
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"Seaport San Diego is more than just an urban redevelopment project—it's the expression of our hopes and dreams for future generations and our passion for being a good steward of the ocean and the planet," Gaffen said. "Our process has been progressive, with community input shaping every part of the design. We are humbled to receive the ICSC GOLD Award and hope to serve as a model for other developments that put the community first."
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The next step for the project, which will ultimately need the approvals of both the Port of San Diego and the California Coastal Commission, will be to enter the environmental review process beginning early next year—also a critical step for any large development.

​12/09/2022 – SD Metro
Seaport San Diego has been honored with a design award, the latest milestone for the transformative redevelopment proposed for the Downtown San Diego waterfront within the Port of San Diego. The $3.6 billion project is currently preparing to enter the environmental review process, a critical step for any large development.
Now, the project team has been presented with the 2022 ICSC GOLD Award for Evolving Innovation and Aspiration in the New Developments category. ICSC highlighted Seaport San Diego’s design for dramatically increasing coastal access, recreational space, activities and water views of San Diego Bay while providing improved commercial fishing facilities and creating unique features including an iconic observation Tower, Aquarium, Learning Center and Blue Tech Innovation Center.

12/08/2022 – Times of San Diego
​By Editor

Seaport San Diego has been honored with a prestigious design award, the latest milestone for the redevelopment proposed for the downtown San Diego waterfront.

The $3.6 billion project, through the Port of San Diego, is preparing to enter the critical environmental review process.
The honor, the 2022 ICSC GOLD Award for Evolving Innovation and Aspiration in the New Developments category, noted how Seaport San Diego’s design dramatically increased coastal access, recreational space, activities and water views of San Diego Bay. The design team also provided improved commercial fishing facilities and unique features, including an observation tower, aquarium, learning center and Blue Tech innovation center.

As the member organization for the marketplace industry, ICSC promotes and elevates the marketplaces and spaces where people shop, dine, work, play and gather.

Its Global Design and Development Awards Program recognizes outstanding achievements in design and development of marketplaces properties and retail store design. This year’s winners were announced at the annual ceremony Dec. 1 in Phoenix.

Master architect James Mellor, AIA, NCARB, Principal of CallisonRTKL Inc., accepted the award on behalf of the project team.

“Seaport is really a love letter for San Diego – a once-in-a-lifetime project – and we are grateful to ICSC for recognizing the passion and quality of this innovative design in enhancing public access and economic development for this cherished site,” Mellor said. “We have had tremendous momentum this year and we are excited about where it’s going as we advance this truly world-class waterfront for our beautiful San Diego Bay.”

The Seaport San Diego developer is the 1HWY1 Partnership, made up of Yehudi “Gaf” Gaffen, Jeff Jacobs and Jeffrey Essakow.

“Seaport San Diego is more than just an urban redevelopment project – it’s the expression of our hopes and dreams for future generations and our passion for being a good steward of the ocean and the planet,” said Gaffen, 1HWY1’s CEO. “Our process has been progressive, with community input shaping every part of the design. We are humbled to receive the ICSC GOLD Award and hope to serve as a model for other developments that put the community first.”

1HWY1 was selected by the Port of San Diego for its Seaport San Diego concept after a competitive process in 2016 in which developers submitted ideas for the land and water area known as the Central Embarcadero.

This includes Seaport Village, Santa Monica Seafood (formerly Chesapeake Fish), and surrounding areas between the Manchester Grand Hyatt and the USS Midway Museum, with some exclusions.

The port initiated the redevelopment to create more public space on the water, extend streets to the water, preserve and enhance view corridors and facilitate the enjoyment of the bay.

The team spent years refining its proposed project in response to stakeholder feedback, due diligence findings and input from prospective partners. The port held four public meetings to consider Seaport San Diego this year.

On Nov. 8, the Board of Port Commissioners unanimously voted to move the project into the California Environmental Quality Act review process. That is expected to take at least two years, after which the project may be considered for approval.

​If all the expected milestones are met without delay, 1HWY1 projects that groundbreaking could take place in 2025. 

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. (Dec. 8, 2022) – Seaport San Diego has been honored with a prestigious design award, the latest milestone for this transformative redevelopment proposed for the Downtown San Diego waterfront within the Port of San Diego. The $3.6 billion project is currently preparing to enter the environmental review process, a critical step for any large development. Now, the project team has been presented with the 2022 ICSC GOLD Award for Evolving Innovation and Aspiration in the New Developments category. ICSC highlighted Seaport San Diego’s design for dramatically increasing coastal access, recreational space, activities and water views of San Diego Bay while providing improved commercial fishing facilities and creating unique features including an iconic observation Tower, Aquarium, Learning Center and Blue Tech Innovation Center.

As the member organization for industry advancement, ICSC promotes and elevates the marketplaces and spaces where people shop, dine, work, play and gather as foundational and vital ingredients of communities and economies. Its Global Design & Development Awards Program recognizes outstanding achievements in design and development of marketplaces properties and retail store design. This year’s winners were announced at the annual ceremony Dec. 1, 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona. “This design provides contemporary experiences designed to prioritize accessible waterfront recreation with 16-plus acres of open space,” ICSC stated in the video accompanying the award presentation.  

​Master architect James Mellor, AIA, NCARB, Principal of CallisonRTKL Inc., accepted the award on behalf of the project team. 

“Seaport is really a love letter for San Diego – a once-in-a-lifetime project – and we are grateful to ICSC for recognizing the passion and quality of this innovative design in enhancing public access and economic development for this cherished site,” Mellor said. “We have had tremendous momentum this year and we are excited about where it’s going as we advance this truly world-class waterfront for our beautiful San Diego Bay.”

The Seaport San Diego developer is the 1HWY1 Partnership, made up of Yehudi “Gaf” Gaffen, Jeff Jacobs and Jeffrey Essakow. 

“Seaport San Diego is more than just an urban redevelopment project – it’s the expression of our hopes and dreams for future generations and our passion for being a good steward of the ocean and the planet,” said Gaffen, 1HWY1’s Chief Executive Officer. “Our process has been progressive, with community input shaping every part of the design. We are humbled to receive the ICSC GOLD Award and hope to serve as a model for other developments that put the community first.”

With strong public support, Seaport San Diego is endorsed by hundreds of San Diego residents and organizations including the Downtown San Diego Partnership, San Diego County Building & Construction Trades Council, UNITE-HERE, San Diego Airport Authority, San Diego Tourism Authority, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, San Diego Regional EDC, TMA BlueTech and YIMBY Democrats of San Diego County, among many others.

1HWY1 was selected by the Port of San Diego for its Seaport San Diego concept after a competitive process in 2016 in which developers submitted ideas for the land and water area known as the Central Embarcadero. This area includes Seaport Village, Santa Monica Seafood (formerly Chesapeake Fish), and surrounding areas between the Manchester Grand Hyatt and the USS Midway Museum, with some exclusions. The Port initiated the redevelopment to create more public space on the water, extend streets to the water, preserve and enhance view corridors and facilitate the enjoyment of the bay.

The project team spent years refining its proposed project in response to Board and stakeholder feedback, due diligence findings, and input from prospective partners. The Port held four public meetings to consider Seaport San Diego in 2022, a year of great momentum. 

A major milestone took place on November 8, 2022; the Board of Port Commissioners unanimously voted to move the project into the California Environmental Quality Act review process. Environmental review is expected to take at least two years, after which the project may be considered for approval. Based on meeting all milestones, 1HWY1 projects that a groundbreaking could take place in 2025.    

​ABOUT SEAPORT SAN DIEGO:
Seaport San Diego is a proposal by 1HWY1 to revitalize a key section of the San Diego Bayfront thoughtfully and boldly for the next century of San Diego visitors and residents. The project would bolster access, use, and enjoyment of the waterfront for all. The proposal includes significant recreational open space, including parks and landscaping, recreation areas, a public promenade, walkways and walking paths, public piers and a new public urban beach; an activated observation Tower, which will serve as an iconic and engaging attraction complete with restaurants, observation decks, and gathering spaces for all to celebrate the San Diego waterfront; a new living shoreline area with constructed artificial wetlands and tidepools; a Blue Campus featuring an Aquarium, Learning Center and Blue Tech Innovation Center; a unique variety of experiential retail, restaurants as well as health and wellness offerings; multiple hospitality options comprised of lodging suitable for all income levels to create 24/7 activity, along with convention and meeting space. Key elements include a revitalized commercial fishing harbor, fish processing facility and elevated deck for public viewing at the historic Tuna Harbor site; a vibrant event center for hosting concerts, live events and other amenities; and unparalleled public water access including public access piers, marinas, and day use docks and slips. For more information, please visit seaportsandiegoca.com.
 

San Diego Port commissioners on Tuesday agreed to launch an environmental review of a $3.6 billion plan to remake Seaport Village and the surrounding waterfront, culminating six years of planning on one of the single biggest projects in port history.

The unanimous 7-0 vote signals the Port of San Diego's willingness to move forward a development that has undergone multiple revisions over the years and attracted, at times, significant concerns from various stakeholders, from downtown homeowners to commercial fishermen. Commissioners themselves have expressed reservations in the past, and just last month, the staff of the California Coastal Commission weighed in with deep concerns of its own.
Although they acknowledged those pockets of opposition, commissioners lauded the developer, 1HWY1, for the numerous changes it has made to its proposed redevelopment of downtown's Central Embarcadero. The time is now, they said, to move forward, with the caveat that the Tuesday vote is not an expression of formal support for the development itself nor does it represent a commitments to Seaport San Diego.

"We need to think big; if we stall, if we wait, it'll take another 10, 15 years," said Commissioner Rafael Castellanos, calling the redevelopment of the Central Embarcadero a "transformational" undertaking. "Many people will be very happy if that's what we do. I'm not willing to not try to swing for the fences and to not think big. It's really hard to do something like this. After six years, it's time to take it to the next level of review.

7/27/2022 – Fox 5 San Diego
Zara Barker reports on the huge project that could redefine the city’s waterfront.

JULY 22, 2022 2:47 PM PT – SD Union-Tribune 
BY JENNIFER VAN GROVE 

It’s not back to the drawing board, but the developer proposing to redo downtown’s broader Central Embarcadero with hotels, attractions and new marinas will need to revise — and perhaps even eliminate — some key elements of the mega project known as Seaport San Diego. 

Thursday, Port of San Diego Commissioners expressed opposing views of 1HWY1’s Seaport project during a 4.5-hour-long workshop where public concerns about the overall size of the project, the developer’s fraught relationship with local fishermen and the volume of the project’s boat slips dominated the conversation. Still, the general tenor of the discussion suggested a path forward where the road to approval appeared blocked just a few months ago. 

“I think that we continue to move down the right path,” Port Commissioner Rafael Castellanos said. “I know it’s controversial and a lot of folks aren’t going to like it. But there are a lot of folks who don’t just like it, they love it. And so I’m not entirely there yet, but I’m supportive of the vision. I’d like to see the transformative project come to fruition on this site.” 
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Like Castellanos, Commissioners Dan Malcolm and Ann Moore said they see the project — and its more than 2,000 hotel rooms — as an appropriate fit for downtown’s urban waterfront. 

A new rendering of the proposed Seaport San Diego project shows the mixed-use development has been changed to include more open space and wider walkways.
7/22/2022 – SD Daily Transcript
By Thor Kamban Biberma 

A transformative reimagining of Seaport Village has been in a constant state of flux since it was first proposed six years ago, and what the project will ultimately look like is anyone's guess.

On Thursday, the latest proposal of Seaport San Diego was presented to the Board of Port Commissioners. It's a plan that puts a heavy emphasis on the expanded amount of open space in the project.

Even with all the changes, Yehudi Gaffen, who is helping spearhead the project, remains upbeat.

"I was encouraged by the meeting with the commissioners," said Gaffen, who is CEO of both Gaffen Development and Protea Waterfront Development.

He added that he is actually looking forward to getting into the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process once the latest changes have been given the green light by the Port. The project would also need approval from the California Coastal Commission.

The group developing the project is known as 1 Highway 1 (1HWY1). Since it was selected for the project in 2016, the team been refining its proposal that would replace the existing Seaport Village site on the Central Embarcadero.

The project has undergone more than 100 public presentations to ensure public involvement. The 1HWY1 team and previously the Board of Port Commissioners saw a presentation on Seaport San Diego in March 2022.

The latest renderings of Seaport San Diego, which were presented Thursday to the Port of San Diego, illustrate possible revisions to the proposal in response to the public feedback in March.

The Board of Port Commissioners didn't make a decision Thursday but provided feedback, which will help finalize the revisions.

The changes include the addition of more recreational open space, increases in the width of walkways, improvements in circulation and open sightlines to the water, and the creation of a more open feeling along the waterfront. All of these changes would be achieved by reducing proposed density, lowering some building heights, increasing setbacks and moving most parking underground.

The decreased density would be achieved by reducing the size of the proposed Blue Tech Innovation Center, the full-service hotel conference facility and the number of boat slips.

The Port has received more than 400 letters of support for the Seaport San Diego proposal this year. The list of supporters includes the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, Downtown San Diego Partnership, San Diego Unified School District, San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, the San Diego Airport Authority, the San Diego Building & Construction Trades Council, UC San Diego, the San Diego Tourism Authority and the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp.

The new proposal increases recreational open space by more than 1 acre to 16 acres and increases the width of public access from Pacific Highway to Market Street Pier by up to 100 percent compared to the December 2021 project description, from 50-feet wide to 80-to 100-feet wide by reducing the full-service hotel conference facilities.

The full-service hotel's footprint would be reconfigured to improve circulation to the water and open sightlines to the water.

The latest proposal also more open space along the waterfront by increasing the building setbacks at the aquarium by more than 60 percent (from 40 feet to 65 feet) compared to the December 2021 project description.

The number of boat slips has been reduced from 366 to 265 compared to the December 2021 project description.

The Blue Tech Innovation Center area has been reduced by more 25 percent to 220,000 square feet, and the facility's tower height has been decreased by 60 feet compared to the December 2021 project description to 320 feet.

The new proposal also dramatically increases the number of recreational experiences to include expanded and improved parks, piers, a living shoreline, an urban beach, a kids' nature play area, and a "green strand" elevated walkway.

"We want to make sure this project is accessible to everyone," said Gaffen, emphasizing that the plans are very environmentally conscious as well.

Last spring, PCL Construction and McCarthy Construction were both named as general contractors to handle the construction.

Three architectural firms are currently part of the 1HWY1 team. They include Bjarke Ingels Group Architects, Safdie Rabines Architects, and Callison RTKL Architects.

"This has been a long journey," said Gaffen, adding that he remains very confident that all the efforts will make for the best possible project.
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thor_biberman@sdtranscript.com
 

The development team for Seaport San Diego has presented new renderings to the Port of San Diego to illustrate contemplated revisions for the Central Embarcadero project.

At a Thursday special meeting by the Board of Port Commissioners, the team discussed how the updated proposal creates a more open feel along the waterfront – dramatically increasing coastal access, recreational activities and views of San Diego Bay.
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“We are keeping the best of what the waterfront currently offers while adding experiences that reflect community wants and needs and creating a more open feel along the waterfront,” said Yehudi Gaffen, CEO of 1HWY1, the winner of a 2016 competitive bidding process for the project.