First off, the area you’re referring to is not Sorrento Valley. It’s actually Mira Mesa. It’s the commercial side of Mira Mesa. Go here to read up on Mira Mesa trying to reclaim the name of the area. The reason why I brought that up is because this area (East of the 805) is being controlled by Mira Mesa Community Planning Group. Also building permits have to go through them first. You can go here to read their past meeting minutes to see what is being built.
If you read their past minutes and docs, you’ll see QCOM is currently expanding both out and up in Mira Mesa. Their build Q got approved to be renovated. They’re adding a few more stories to that building. Also, the old 7-up building on the corner of Morehouse and Lusk was bought up by QCOM. They’re in the process of getting permits to build 2 high rises on that lot. They originally wanted to build 2 15-20 stories buildings (I don’t remember exactly), but due to Miramar, they have to lower that down to something like 10-15 stories instead. They’re also consolidating in Mira Mesa. They currently have buildings in both Sorrento Valley (West of the 805) and Mira Mesa (East of the 805), but they’re consolidating around their main campus, which is on Morehouse. So, in the foreseeable future, I don’t expect them to move anywhere near the 15 corridor. At least not until they take up the entire Mira Mesa.
QCOM is not the only company in Mira Mesa. There are companies like Gen-Probe, Motorola, SDCCU, Sharps urgent care, and Scripps’ new $185M Proton Therapy Center (linky). Keep in mind that MM’s commercial area cover all the areas between Miramar to the South, Penasquitos Canyon to the North, 805 to the West and 15 to the East. That entire area is being controlled by Mira Mesa Community Planning Group. If you look at the map, you’ll see that’s a HUGE area with a lot of businesses of all different shape and sizes (but obviously, QCOM is the biggest). The there are the new Stone Creek Master plan community w/in Mira Mesa. They’re planning commercial buildings there too.
When comparing Mira Mesa to Rancho Bernardo, I think infrastructure wise, Mira Mesa is much more well positioned to get more large corporation in the long term. I term of space, Mira Mesa is much bigger than Rancho Bernardo. In term of transportation, MM has more freeways leading to it (5/805/56) vs just the 15 for RB. I the longer term, SD is talking about extend the train up from DT through UTC and through Mira Mesa.
