Oceanside Downtown

I rode the motorcycle down to Oceanside downtown late this afternoon. There is a bunch of new development finishing up and some new ones approved to begin.

Right at the Pier is the new Wyndham Fairfield Resort. It has a generic up-to-date architectural style, nothing amazing, but tasteful. It's open - there were people in the lobby and employees behind the desk. The great thing about this is they are including a restaurant right at street level which is part of a local restaurant group that does upscale cuisine. I've eaten at a few of their places, such a Indigo Grill in San Diego's Little Italy. So, finally, Oceanside has an up-scale restaurant. I am hoping it becomes my favorite place.

Wyndham Fairfield Resort - Oceanside Pier

Another place getting completed called Oceanside Terrace is over by the movie theaters and the train station. This one has a more Tuscan style, more sandstone and other stone facing and a tall arcade along the walkway that actually somewhat reminds me of walking in the outer colonnade of the Colosseum. Expensive condos above retail. It's taken over 2 years to get this built and ready. Also, the website is no longer active. Odd... I'll try to track it down later.

There is another place a block in from Coast Hwy nearby that is the former PacBell North County long distance switching office (from the 60's to the 90's I think) called Oceanside Lofts. This place too FOREVER to get built and I think they took a bath with it because it doesn't seem sold out. Semi-artsy-fartsy style.

Another development a few blocks up Coast Hwy has a cool "moderne" look to it, also shops and retail on the first floor with condos above.

After this there are two more slated to begin, both by a company called "Citymark." The first is directly behind the Wyndham and the other one is a few hundred yards away, in front of the Oceanside Terrace development and on the "Top Gun House" lot, which fronts up to Pacific St.

So there is a lot of stuff going on in downtown Oceanside, just in time for the economic downturn. But, we must get this stuff done. We have to. Downtown is so crappy as it is that we're going to need a LOT of this sort of thing to be able to ignore the myriad check cashing, $5 haircut (for active military) and uniform and cami dry cleaning and name tag sewing-on places. Up until a couple of years ago we had a strip bar (!) a few steps from the pier. A strip bar. The city bought the owner out and it sits empty now, ripe for redevelopment.

Oceanside is also facing a $2M budget shortfall this year, but I happen to think it's no big deal; these new developments will generate new retail sales and hotel tax revenues and hopefully we'll be able bridge that gap next year.