If you take Interstate 5 north from San Diego for about an hour, you will arrive in Oceanside. The city of about 170,000 residents is the third largest in San Diego County, and is about to see some growth near its popular beach.
After more than a decade of delays due to real estate litigation, construction of the Oceanside Beach Resort is about to begin in just a few weeks.
The project was initially approved by the city 13 years ago, according to a news report by a San Diego TV station. Movie trivia fans have special reason to be interested in the resort: it is slated to rise near the small beach home that was featured in the 1986 hit movie, “Top Gun,” that starred Tom Cruise.
An executive with the developer, S.D. Malkin Properties, said litigation slowed the project. “We faced a lawsuit, we won, it was appealed, and we won that,” he said. “That kind of brought us to where we are today.”
It was argued in the suit that Oceanside’s program to share hotel taxes to support development violated California’s constitution.
Other factors in the decade-plus of delays include the Great Recession and an overall slowing of redevelopment projects across the state, the executive told ABC 10 News.
The exec told the station that though the tax-share development program had been used effectively in the state, the legal challenge to it was the first of its kind. “The court found it was completely constitutional, completely acceptable, and so it just delayed us for three years.”
Construction on the long-awaited resort project is to start before the new year. The first step will be excavation of the site, followed by construction of a concrete superstructure of six or seven stories.
An attorney experienced in commercial real estate litigation can help resolve critical disputes involving contracts, boundaries, leases, loans and more.