Downtown Oceanside has seen a renaissance in the last decade and that growth could continue with the proposed construction of two seven-story, mixed-use developments four blocks apart on Mission Avenue.
Together, the projects will bring 562 apartments along with more restaurants, offices and retail shops. Both proposals are making their way through the city’s planning division and advisory groups and could go to the Oceanside City Council for approval by the end of the year. And there are others in the pipeline.
The city’s zoning ordinances set a limit of 5,500 dwellings in the downtown district, which is west of Interstate 5, from Harbor Drive to Wisconsin Avenue. The city staff estimated in 2019 that the district had about 2,300 dwellings.
The 562 apartments in the two projects are 21% of the 2,200 dwellings left before the city hits the 5,500 maximum. Also, the City Council could increase the limit by updating the housing element of its general plan.
As with almost any development, people see good and bad. Some worry about increased traffic, noise and shrinking views of the ocean. Others see the growth as a boost for business and more homes for a region deep in a housing crisis.
Tim Farley, owner of several Knockout Pizza shops including one on Mission, said at a recent Oceanside Downtown Advisory Committee meeting that city planners should “fast track” the two Mission Avenue projects.
“For me, that means going from $700,000 in revenue per year to $1 million or $1.5 million,” Farley said. “I could hire another 20 employees. It’s more tax revenue for the city … I’m all for it.”
Probably the more high-profile of the two is a seven-story building that will replace the OceanPlace Entertainment Center and its 16-screen Regal movie theater at 401 Mission Ave., itself a relatively new development just west of North Coast Highway. The proposal is tentatively set to be considered by the Oceanside City Council on June 18.
The theater complex was heralded as a much-needed downtown centerpiece when it opened in December 1999 on 2.7 acres that had been vacant for more than 15 years. The site was part of several blighted blocks along Mission near the Oceanside Pier that the city had cleared for redevelopment.
However, movie theaters everywhere have struggled with the advance of online entertainment. Also, a second phase of the OceanPlace center with a nightclub and live entertainment venue was never built.
Instead, in 2008 a developer put up the Oceanview Terraces on the second half of the parcel. The building has shops and restaurants on the first floor, offices on the second floor, and 38 luxury condominiums on the fourth through sixth floors, along with underground parking for residents.
Some of the commercial space in both developments remained vacant for years, though, and the small businesses there struggled to thrive.
Despite that, the public plaza at the OceanPlace entrance on the three-way corner of Mission and North Tremont Street attracted downtown activities and became a local landmark.
The concrete oasis is home to the city’s annual Christmas tree and its ceremonial lighting. It remains a popular year-round hangout for young Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton. There’s a street market on Mission and the connecting streets every Thursday evening, with food and entertainment, and new and trendy restaurants have opened in the surrounding neighborhood.
“This project is at the heart of foot traffic for Oceanside,” said one woman, who urged the developer to keep a plaza in the new building open for entertainment and special events.
Ernie Rivas, a vice president of JH Real Estate Partners Inc., the developer, said the plaza will be rebuilt as part of the project. The new layout will be slightly smaller but more accessible, and it will remain available for public events, including the annual Christmas tree lighting.
“We want to make the plaza more usable by the entire community,” Rivas said.
The upper five floors of the proposed seven-story building will have one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments over two stories of commercial space. The structure also will have a parking garage, unlike the entertainment center, where the lack of parking has been a downside.
The proposal was one of two mixed-used projects presented at the Downtown Advisory Committee’s April 23 meeting, where a majority of the recommended the City Council’s approval for both.
Committee member Jesse Abril, who voted no on both projects, said he had concerns about the size.
“I’m not a big fan of continuing to wall off our ocean,” Abril said, adding, “We need space where Marines and the public can hang out.”
The other mixed-use development is proposed for 801 Mission Ave., a 1.5-acre city block opposite the North County Transit District headquarters.
That project calls for the demolition of two older commercial buildings to make way for a seven-story structure with 230 apartments on the upper floors and 5,240 square feet of ground-floor commercial space fronting Mission Avenue and the northwest corner of Nevada Street.
Apartments there would range from 479-square-foot studios to 935-square-foot units with two bedrooms, according to a city report. A three-level parking garage in the building would have 295 spaces for residents and 22 spaces for visitors and commercial uses, with access from Nevada and Clementine streets.
Amenities for residents will include a fitness gym, an outdoor courtyard with grills and seating, and a roof-top deck with a pool.
No City Council date has been set to consider the 801 Mission building. Because both projects are in the downtown district, they do not need Planning Commission hearings and will be heard by the City Council acting as the Community Development Commission.
Both projects will reserve 10% of their apartments for qualifying low-income tenants, the mandatory minimum when the applications were submitted. Since then, the City Council has increased the minimum to 15% affordable housing in new residential developments.
Much of Oceanside’s recent growth has been in nine blocks the city set aside for redevelopment as early as the mid-1970s.
The master-planned area covers the western end of Mission Avenue, from the edge of OceanPlace to North Pacific Street and the beach bluff overlooking the Oceanside Pier. The first project finished in the area was the Wyndham Oceanside Pier Resort, a seven-story time-share building and hotel that opened in 2008 at the corner of Pacific and Pier View Way.
The most recent additions were two luxury resort hotels that opened in 2021 on Pacific Street — the Mission Pacific and the Seabird — both built by S.D. Malkin Properties of San Diego. Preliminary plans were submitted in 2023 for two more buildings together with up to 360 apartments on the last two of the nine blocks.
Plans also are underway to start what could be the city’s single largest downtown redevelopment project at the Oceanside Transit Center.
Located on South Tremont Street a few blocks from Mission Avenue, the Transit Center is outside the master-planned area and about three blocks from the beach. Used by Coaster, Sprinter, Metrolink and Amtrak trains, and a hub for Breeze buses, it was built in 1984 to replace a 1940s-era Santa Fe train depot.
North County Transit District owns the 10.2-acre property and has been working with city planners and the developer Toll Brothers. The project includes up to 547 apartments, a 170-room boutique hotel, a multi-story office building, retail shops and a second parking garage.
Completion of the new offices will enable NCTD to move there from its present headquarters, a former bank building in the 800 block of Mission. That structure is to be demolished and replaced by another multi-story building with 206 apartments.
And there’s more on the way.
The city Planning Division is reviewing an application to build an eight-story, multi-use building with 272 apartments and 4,000 square feet of commercial space on 1.5 acres at 901 Mission Ave. That lot is now vacant.
