Officials mum on decision time, but a move looks likely

By Roger Showley

Sempra Energy may be leaning toward moving out of its headquarters to a new building downtown.

Jason Hughes, a downtown broker and unpaid real estate consultant to Mayor Bob Filner, blogged this week that Sempra had informally notified its landlord, Sandor Shapery, that it was intending to move from its location at 101 Ash St, where it or its subsidiary, SDG&E, has been since 1968.

Sempra spokesman Doug Kline said the company is still mulling its options and has not made a formal decision.

Shapery said it was up to Sempra to make the announcement.

“The communications are leaning in that direction (of moving) but they haven’t specified what project they’re looking at the hardest or if they have decided on a specific project,” Shapery said.

The most talked about option is the block bounded by J and Island, Seventh and Eighth Avenues, just north of Petco Park, where Cisterra Development has proposed a 14- to 16-story building of 280,475 to 323,075 square feet.

Cisterra CEO Steven Black said he is not free to discuss the state of negotiations but noted the proposed building, designed by Carrier Johnson + Culture, has been configured specifically for Sempra.

“Though it’s a very functional building, general market conditions don’t support a new office building in downtown San Diego (without major prelease commitments),” Black said. “But we’re getting close.”

Civic San Diego, the city’s neighborhood revitalization arm, granted design approval and a development permit in March for the Cisterra, which would have to be built quickly to meet Sempra’s needs to move before its lease expires in mid-2015.

Shapery said Sempra could exercise a five-year option to remain at the 310,200-square-foot current site pending completion of a new building. If the company does move, he said he’d offer the building to the city for its office needs, currently located in several buildings downtown.

“I think it would make a wonderful city hall,” he said.

Hughes said the city, which has several leases expiring in the next two years, could negotiate temporary lease extensions to mesh with Sempra’s relocation schedule.

“But it’s a little premature to be commenting,” he said.

Besides the Cisterra building, Sempra is known to be considering space at One America Plaza at Broadway and Kettner Boulevard downtown as well as staying put in Shapery’s building.

Locations outside downtown are not under consideration, Kline said.