By: PAUL EAKINS - Staff Writer | ∞
While Escondido city officials await a new set of plans from developer H.R. Horton for the Paramount, a condiminium project that burned down in January, work has stopped on the neighboring Horton condo project called the Venue. City officials say Horton wants to wait so it can work on the two projects at the same time.
ESCONDIDO ---- While city officials await developer D.R. Horton's submission of new plans to rebuild the downtown Paramount townhomes that burned to the ground in January, construction on a nearby Horton residential development has stopped.
City officials said this week that Horton was waiting for work to begin on the Paramount, situated north of the Signature Pavilion between Centre City Parkway and Escondido Boulevard, before resuming construction of the Venue at the corner of Centre City and Washington Avenue.
Horton officials did not return phone calls this week requesting information on the projects' status.
The loss of the Paramount on Jan. 18, when the largest structure fire in Escondido history incinerated four four-story buildings under construction and left only a single completed building standing, was considered a setback to city leaders' hopes of bringing more residents to downtown.
The site had been cleared of rubble and debris by late April, but no activity has been seen there since.
Jon Brindle, the city's director of community development, said this week that Horton officials had said they would be submitting new plans for the development in the second half of July or in August.
The Paramount was to have 12 four-story buildings containing 122 townhomes, but Horton is expected to submit new plans to the city that would include fewer but larger townhomes in three-story buildings, Brindle said.
Police and fire investigators determined in February that the Paramount blaze either was caused by someone or was "recklessly" set, and they recommended misdemeanor charges be filed against an unnamed suspect who hadn't been arrested.
However, Paul Levikow, spokesman for the district attorney's office, said this week that no charges have been filed in the case. He declined to give further details.
Meanwhile, work on the Venue, which will be a five-story, 82-unit condominium building next to the Paramount, has ceased since the concrete parking garage on the first floor of the building was completed in the spring.
Assistant City Manager Charlie Grimm said Horton officials had said they want to be more economical and efficient by coordinating construction of the two developments. "What they want to do is develop (the Venue and the Paramount) at the same time," Grimm said.
After the fire, questions arose about whether Horton would rebuild the Paramount in the face of a sinking housing market.
Horton, one of the nation's largest home-builders, has struggled to sell new homes this year and announced this week that it will post a loss from operations for its latest quarter after net orders fell 40 percent. The decline was sharpest in California, the company reported.
But city officials said the apparent success of Barratt American's partially completed 102-unit City Square condominiums at Second Avenue and Orange Street on the other side of downtown may indicate better times to come for Horton, at least in Escondido.
"I think with the success with Barratt's project down there, that might be good news for Horton," Grimm said.
Debra Rosen, chief executive officer of the Downtown Business Association, said Friday that she would like to see the Venue completed as soon as possible, noting that the business association and city leaders have placed much of their hope for downtown's revitalization in the development of condominiums and townhomes in the city center.
"We want our residential element to come alive," Rosen said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact staff writer Paul Eakins at (760) 740-5420 or peakins@nctimes.com.
Putting the cart before the horse wrote on Jul 14, 2007 4:06 AM:You can plant all the people you want downtown but when they get bored because there is so little to do, they will get in their cars and go elsewhere. This plan just isn't realistic. Today's trendy downtown housing will be tomorrow's seedy tenements. Slow and steady still wins the race. But I know that common sense doesn't come easy for the instant gratification crowd. This just demonstrates Escondido's real lack of sophistication. We're smarter than everyone else; let's take a shortcut. They should do an indepth study of San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter and not just the 'Cliff Notes' version. It was a long and slow process and much more complicated than Escondido would like it to be.
Blah, Blah, Blah... wrote on Jul 14, 2007 6:36 AM:All I am hearing is that they are ruining downtown Escondido with these crappy townhomes and there is more to come with the new downtown specific plan. In a few years Escondido will never be the same. But city officials and developers will all have more $$$ in their pockets. They should consider the quality of lives they are ruining for Escondido residents!
It will become wrote on Jul 14, 2007 12:35 PM:Where are the open spaces? Why not townhomes where people can interact. Instead more apts which means too many people pushed together. Get real.
More Manure wrote on Jul 14, 2007 1:11 PM:This statement speaks volumes: "Police and fire investigators determined in February that the Paramount blaze either was caused by someone or was "recklessly" set, and they recommended misdemeanor charges be filed against an unnamed suspect who hadn't been arrested". I sense a lack of serious intent to catch and charge the "fire starter". The Paramount Fire had alot of locals talking about Arson. It seems that the latest report will continue to keep the Arson conversation going. Furthermore, this statement seems to answer all unanswered questions: "Horton, one of the nation's largest home-builders, has struggled to sell new homes this year and announced this week that it will post a loss from operations for its latest quarter after net orders fell 40 percent. The decline was sharpest in California, the company reported". The average person can put those two statements together and get a more accurate account of what is really happening. D.R. Horton is losing it's bottom in the condo market and it's starting to show in their orders and profits. There is something rotten in Escondido and with D.R. Horton.
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