San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

Hopefully it will go better than Bristol Farms. Bristol used to be an Albertsons packed all day and night with UCSD students, seniors, etc. Now the fancy Bristol Farms is always empty since people that shop high end groceries go to Whole Foods.

Checkout the Cinepolis VIP chain of movie theaters in Mexico. Huge recliner assigned seats, sushi and full bar:

http://www.fotolog.com/bernardo82/27976155

That article was written in August 2007. Do they have funding secured for this planned $900 million upgrade? This looks like a 'bubble' project to me and I don't see this monstrous upgrade getting funded as we head into a recession.

Hopefully it will go better than Bristol Farms. Bristol used to be an Albertsons packed all day and night with UCSD students, seniors, etc. Now the fancy Bristol Farms is always empty since people that shop high end groceries go to Whole Foods.

Thats too bad. I think great store, wrong location. They should have put this closer to RSF or Carmel Valley frankly. I grew up in L.A. where there was a bristol farms, and let me tell you even in the recession of the 80ies and 90ies, that store did well because it was in wealthy retirement mecca.

selfportrait

----- Sour grapes for everyone!

I believe the reason UTC is being overhauled is because they are currently in trouble. UTC mall has declined in quality and appeal. It's suppose to be a more upscale mall in the past, but lately it's really been in decline. With the macy's/robinson-may closure, they never found a decent replacement for the robinson-may. The stores are middle end stores, unlike fashion valley.

I have a relative that does financial analysis of the retail industry. Part of my relative's job is to go shopping to check out what's good and what's bad. It's that person's opinion that UTC is a terrible mall.... and the sales comps from the stores seems to indicate so.

Part of the new Crate and Barrel store is to start to make that mall more upscale. Imho, so long as you have a Sears predominantly in the mall, it's not going to happen. But that's just my opinion. Frankly, I love Sears when it comes adding to my tool collection. I had a field day yesterday with their "1-day 15% off anything you can fit in the brown paper bag" tool sale...Sidenote: I'm slightly disappointed because it's getting harder and harder to find tools made in the USA..While a lot of Craftsman is still USA, I noticed Sears started to sell some of the knock-off brands like "Companion" which is a  chinese/indian subpar brand imho. But at the cost of those , I guess you could go through 3 sets of knock-off brands before breaking even in the cost of buying an equivalent craftsman brand set.

selfportrait

----- Sour grapes for everyone!

If Whole Foods is whole paycheck, what's the nickname for Bristol Farms (it is more expensive than Whole Foods)?

Cinepolis VIP theaters are very nice. The one in TJ is very comfortable especially with a lady friend :). The seats in TJ is not reclined but they are huge leather love seats with waiters you can call to order stuff before the movie.

Funny, I was chatting with the girl who was manning the booth, and one of the first comments I had was I doubted the upgrade would actually take place. You do big upgrades at the bottom of a recession, not going in to one! But CRE lags residential, and CRE is just starting to show pain; who knows, they may actually get it done. If I were on the SD city council, I would have tried to ram this thing through while times were still good. Too late now.

I'm not sure that the presence of Sears is necessarily an indicator of a downscale mall. South Coast Plaza has a Sears and it's one of the most upscale malls in SoCal. But I definitely agree that if Westfield UTC is going to try to move upmarket they definitely need to get rid of lower end stores like Sears.

I would be surprised if this project gets off the ground as well. Especially the condo project. I wonder who thinks its a good idea to combine commercial and residential property like this. I personally would hate to live that close to a mall -- I can just imagine having to fight holiday shopping crowds to get home.

I think that it's great. The UTC area will be like Westwood in LA.

If I were young and a student again, I would love lo live above the mall. Very cool. If you're a student, you don't need to drive. Take the bus to school and the trolley downtown. Walk to shopping.

The question is: can the students afford to live there?

patientlywaiting hit the nail on the head - affordability.

In Pasadena we have a retail center called Paseo Colorado, which is very upscale. They built five or six stories of apts. above the two-level retail complex. The apartments are sky high in price. I asked someone who lived there what it was like to live there and he said, "A lot of times it's very noisy." That is what I would not want - lot's noise, especially into the night.

If I were a student in San Diego, I'd much rather live on the UCSD campus! Imagine being in Torrey Pines - the smell and the sight of the ocean so close to you. I love riding my bike up from the Village in La Jolla and going right by the University. The Mall is east of the freeway, much farther (further?) from the ocean

There's residential areas right next to UTC right now... practically on top of it. Torrey Pines Village is practically in the Red Robin parking lot and wraps all the way behind the ice rink and food court. And then there are condos by the Sears garage and parking structure. I could easily see condos going on top of the mall there.

As for the comment about what students could afford to live there. That's pretty funny. Lots of rich parents pay for huge rents all over UTC and La Jolla. It amazes me that those areas are some of the most expensive places to live in the country, and there are TONS of college kids living around there.

BTW, I had the unfortunate experience of living in Torrey Pines Village when I first moved here. Not for me, but some people love it.

RE Sears tools: way overpriced. I bought a set of 8 ratcheting wrenches for $60 not long ago. I saw a similar set at Costco yesterday for $19, they appeared to be of equal if not better quality.

Will Costco allow you to walk in with an old, obviously abused and broken wrench, replace it for free right then and there without hesitation or documentation all while apologizing that the tool failed? It's hard to beat how much Sears stands behind the Craftsman hand tool line. Costco/Harbor Freight/etc are great if you want a cheap set of tools. If you want a complete set of tools that you will use for decades, will stay complete and can get replaced for free as quickly as you can drive to Sears, buy Craftsman :)

Costco will allow you to bring the item back for up to 1 year no ???'s asked. Was shocked to find out this goes for furniture as well. Does not apply to electronics.

Costco will allow you to bring the item back for up to 1 year no ???'s asked. Was shocked to find out this goes for furniture as well. Does not apply to electronics.

It use to apply to electronics, but people were taking advantage of it. costco does extend the warranty on electronics for I believe up to 2 years though.

Don't be so shocked. Costco still makes money doing this.

Craftsman tools are built real well, other tools are cheap crap. if you use the cheap sockets on any application that you overtorque the nuts and bolts,  you end up wearing out the sockets before the actual nut you remove. And the next time you use it, you end up striping the bolts because your sockets were all shaved off. Not a good thing if you work on cars.

selfportrait

----- Sour grapes for everyone!

Speaking of mall living, anyone have any idea who in their right mind would live in those new condos across the street from Fashion Valley Mall? Friars is a mess there even during slow season. During the holidays it is SUICIDE. Who the hell would live there?!

People will live anywhere as long as the price is right. But I agree that location is horrible. Maybe if you really like shopping at Fashion Valley but otherwise like you said the traffic is a nightmare. Especially when theres a game at the stadium, Friars Rd. is like a parking lot.