OCEANSIDE —— While the site of a long-awaited Fairfield Resorts timeshare project remains virtually untouched more than six weeks after a ceremonial groundbreaking, at least two other highly-anticipated construction projects in downtown Oceanside appear to be moving right along.

There were dozens of busy hands Thursday morning at the site of the nearly-complete, 453-space parking garage near the city's Coaster railroad platform, and several more on the other side of Cleveland Street, where workers labored on an in-progress, mixed-use project south of Regal Cinemas.

But a few blocks northwest of those bustling construction sites, a 1.5-acre parcel on which the seven-story, 168-unit Fairfield project is planned sat nearly vacant.

Bob Brann, project manager for Davis Reed Construction, said Thursday that while the city held a ceremonial groundbreaking at the end of August on the seaside Fairfield property, it took until Tuesday for him to receive a grading permit from Oceanside.

"The green flag'll drop next week and we can really get going on it," Brann said.

The project manager said that soon there will be two large, yellow drilling rigs on the Fairfield property that will tunnel 122 holes around the parcel's outer edge in which 30-foot steel beams will be placed. Those beams will create stability so that crews can turn the site into a 30-foot hole where two levels of underground parking can be built, Brann said.

Over the next two months, about 65,000 cubic yards of dirt will be hauled from the Fairfield property, Brann said. Officials have said that once grading begins, the Fairfield resort will be completed in about 18 months.

Oceanside Terraces

Nearby, workers have recently been busy putting concrete shoring on the dirt walls of a 25-foot-deep hole that will be turned into two levels of underground parking for an 85-foot-tall mixed-use project west of Regal Cinemas.

The $35.2 million project, dubbed "Oceanside Terraces," will likely be completed by February 2007, said project manager Joe Biglione of Ledcor SD Construction Inc. When finished, the project will include 8,050 square feet of restaurant and commercial space on the ground floor, 18,610 square feet of offices on the second floor and 38 two- or three-bedroom condominiums on the top four stories.

This week, workers installed the first section of a 131-foot crane that will be used to hoist construction materials to the top floors of the planned building, said Steve Wolf, Ledcor's project superintendent. The entire crane will be erected by next week, he said.

Crews are also busy hooking underground electrical and phone lines into the southwest corner of the 0.87-acre site, Wolf said, adding that water and sewer lines have already been connected.

Once that underground work is completed, Biglione said workers would pour the building's foundation and set concrete for the below-grade garage. Once the garage is completed, crews will build two above-grade concrete stories, Biglione said.

"There's going to be a lot of activity going on there," Biglione said,

Parking garage

Directly west of the mixed-use project, workers were starting to put some finishing touches Thursday on a 453-space parking garage.

Gary Kellison, the city's senior civil engineer, said the garage should be open for business by January.

In the meantime, Kellison said work crews will finish the structure's exterior and complete a canopy frame on top of the building.

Laborers are also doing work at the corner of Cleveland and Seagaze Drive to connect electrical, water and phone lines to the garage, Kellison said.

Once that's complete, site improvements such as landscaping and a plaza will be finished, Kellison said.

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