Oceanside to hold ceremonial groundbreaking Wednesday

By: BEN FRUMIN - Staff Writer | Monday, August 29, 2005 8:35 PM PDT ∞

OCEANSIDE ---- The long-awaited, oft-delayed Fairfield Resorts timeshare project near the Oceanside Municipal Pier ---- expected by many city officials to kickstart an economic boom downtown ---- will finally get under way with an invitation-only groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday.

Plans for the seven-story Fairfield project include 136 time-share units, 32 hotel rooms, a restaurant, more than 7,000 square feet of commercial space, and two levels of underground parking.

"It's really happening," Jane McVey, the city's director of economic development and redevelopment, said Monday.

McVey said that while she can't guarantee that trucks will begin moving dirt on the site the day after Wednesday's ceremonial groundbreaking, she said grading will begin on the Fairfield property within two weeks.

"We're pushing to get in the ground in September," said Scott Mathews, project manager for the Cendant Timeshare Group, which owns Fairfield. Matthews added that he's expecting a grading permit to be issued within days.

Fairfield's 1.5-acre property is bound by Pacific and Myers streets, Pier View Way and Civic Center Drive, and lies directly north of a city-owned, 2.75-acre parcel on which a 302-room Westin resort is planned.

Developer Jim Watkins sold the 1.5-acre parcel to Fairfield, the nation's largest time-share developer, in early 2004, soon after he had received the city's OK to build a resort there. Because the project was already approved, Fairfield was bound to build the resort as Watkins had planned, McVey said.

When Watkins and Fairfield struck their deal, it was said that the resort could open as soon as early 2006. But that date has been pushed back, and McVey said Monday that officials now hope that the resort will open by spring 2008.

She chalked up much of the delay to Fairfield having had to complete engineering, grading and building plans that Watkins hadn't done before he sold the land to Fairfield. Though Watkins' conceptual proposal was entitled by the city in December 2003, Fairfield had to prepare more detailed plans before construction could begin.

McVey said construction of the project is now expected to be finished by December 2007, though it would still take two to three months from that time for Fairfield to install fixtures, equipment and furniture, and hire and train employees.

Oceanside's leaders often point to the Fairfield project as a critical step in redeveloping the downtown area, which they say will lead to a windfall of property, sales and hotel taxes.

"It's a huge deal for Oceanside," McVey said of the Fairfield project, which she described as a "catalyst project" that would be an "economic boon to the downtown."

The invitation-only groundbreaking ceremony will be held 2 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at the northeast corner of Pacific Street and Pier View Way.

McVey said she expects about 60 people to attend the ceremony, including council members, city department heads, Fairfield officials, and members of the city's Redevelopment Advisory Committee and Economic Development Commission.

Though officials said work on the Fairfield project will begin soon, a ceremonial groundbreaking in Oceanside is no guarantee of construction beginning immediately.

For instance, the city and developer Janez Properties Inc. held a joint groundbreaking Sept. 30, 2004 on a mixed-use project, dubbed "Oceanside Terraces," just west of Regal Cinemas in downtown Oceanside, though the developer didn't even close escrow on the property until April 1 of this year. Oceanside Terraces is now under construction.

Contact staff writer Ben Frumin at (760) 901-4067 or bfrumin@nctimes.com.

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