After years of planning, construction is almost ready to launch on an eight-story, mixed-use apartment mid-rise that will take the place of San Pedro’s now-demolished courthouse.
Named Acqua Via — and featuring a ground floor public food hall named Union Hall — the development, 505 S. Centre St., will feature 300 apartments, with 20% of those set aside as affordable units.
Construction is expected to take about 28 months, bringing it into 2025.
“We’re working hard at it,” said Bill Cockrum, senior managing partner and president of Genton Cockrum Partners. “Our goal is to start construction by the end of summer, probably in September. There’s a lot to get accomplished but we’re driving toward that deadline.”
Among the first pieces of work will be to remove the foundation of the old courthouse and surface parking lots, kept in place to hold down the dust on the cleared site.
The project hasn’t been easy, Cockrum said.
From the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and now with high construction costs, staff shortages and an uncertain economy with rising interest rates, the challenges have been many, he said.
The focus for the ground floor retail space is a large food hall that would include full kitchens and room for food vendors, with separate inside spaces providing areas for live music, gaming and golf swing suites. The goal: to activate the corner of Sixth and Centre streets, creating an anchor tenant for the downtown.
Planned outdoor space could seat some 80 people for live performances. That area would also include sound and video screens for showing sports or other live events, as well as space for art shows or exhibits.
“We’ve been at this (business) for 30 years so we’ve been through a few cycles,” Cockrum said of the ebb and flow of the economic and construction environment.
Initially, he said, developers were looking at the ground-floor space for a Trader Joe’s.
But officials for the popular market felt their Western…
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