McMillin Communities Breaks Ground on 210-Acre Community in South San Diego County
McMillin Communities shifted its focus back to Southern San Diego County with the recent ground breaking ceremony for its multi-billion dollar Millenia project, which will feature the creation of 3,000 multi-family residences, 2 million square feet of office spaces and 1.5 million square feet of retail, hospitality, civic and mixed use projects over the next 20 years.
By Joshua Ayers, Senior Editor
Chula Vista, Calif.—McMillin Communities shifted its focus back to Southern San Diego County with the recent ground breaking ceremony for its multi-billion dollar Millenia project, which will feature the creation of 3,000 multi-family residences, 2 million square feet of office spaces and 1.5 million square feet of retail, hospitality, civic and mixed use projects over the next 20 years.
Initial grading has already begun on about 100 acres of the project site, which will host about 270 Fairfield Residential apartments, 214 for-sale residences spanning three neighborhoods, a 120-room hotel and two of the six urban parks that are planned for the project. The site is located just east of SR125 at Birch Road.
“We envision Millenia becoming the future City Center of South County and the epicenter of the emerging San Diego/Tijuana mega region,” says Scott McMillin, chairman of The Corky McMillin Companies. “It is ideally located near the U.S. Olympic Training Center, only four miles from the Otay Mesa Port of Entry and the planned cross-border terminal, and just 20 miles from Downtown San Diego and Lindberg Field.”
Construction of Millenia’s structural and land development components will focus on sustainability, utilizing benchmarks outlined by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) program, such as pedestrian- and bike-friendly neighborhoods that offer adequate public transportation, while creating structures that minimize detrimental impacts to air quality and energy and water consumption.
“We have spent thousands of hours visiting and researching the most vibrant, livable, sustainable and economically successful urban town centers in the country,” says Mark McMillin, president and CEO of the company. “Inspiration for Millenia comes from as far as Portland’s eclectic Pearl District to Mockingbird Station in Dallas to Reston, Virginia. We learned that great urban places have to be responsive to the community, flexible, and design-sensitive with an amalgamation of a daytime office workers and residents. That’s the way to create a lively vibe and maintain economic viability.”
Some key features of the development include residences that will be no less than a two-and-a-half minute walk to one of the six parks, and also conveniently located near retail and entertainment hubs that will be connected by promenades, squares, bikeways and walkways.
McMillin’s Todd Galarneau, senior vice president of Land Development, led the planning team which was comprised of Baltimore’s RTKL, a global architecture and design practice, Cinti Land Planning of Rosarito Mexico, Project Design Consultants (PDC) of San Diego, which handled civil engineering components of the project, and Wallace, Roberts & Todd for park design. Stratford Land in Dallas is also a financial partner.
The project will cover the equivalent of about 80 city blocks, and is expected to house a population of about 8,500 when it is completed.
“This project will play a key role for Chula Vista’s future University Innovation District that will be developed adjacent to Millenia,” says Chula Vista Mayor Cheryl Cox.