With renovation done, old U-T building gets first tenant

Following a $40-million overhaul, the 330,000-square-foot creative office campus at 350 Camino de la Reina — the former home of the Union-Tribune — is officially open for business. Developer the Casey Brown Company said this week that it has secured its first tenant, who will occupy around 95,000 square feet of space at the remodeled 13-acre site in Mission Valley, now called Ampersand.

Financial services company, Encore Capital Group, has leased the entire third floor, which spreads across the five-story building on the east and is connected by bridge to the three-floor former printing plant on the west. Encore has also taken a portion of the reconfigured first floor of the east building.

Built in 1973, the U-T building was purchased by the developer in 2015 for $52 million. Today, Ampersand pays homage to its storied history with the old, recognizable brick exterior and concrete shell of the original building still in place. Otherwise the two structures have been gutted and reconfigured in the hopes that the site, located alongside Interstate 8 and state Route 163, will appeal to modern companies and their young workers.

The renovated property is punctuated by 64,000 square feet of outdoor space. That includes these pods, which have been built into the former paper’s loading dock.

(Javier Laos/Photography-La Jolla Visions)

Amenities range from an abundance of outdoor space — 64,000 square feet spread across the property — to an 8,000 square-foot, indoor-outdoor fitness center that should feel more like a spa than an office gym. Other notable features include 14-foot-high windows, bikes for every tenant, and a ground-floor cafe serving gourmet coffee and grab-and-go food items.

Additionally, two large, interpretative murals, created by Los Angeles-based painter John Park, book-end the courtyard of the printing press building, attempting to artfully connect past and present with bright blue, purple and yellow hues.

Encore is consolidating their two offices in Mission Valley for a single headquarters at Ampersand. It will get a non-exclusive building sign on the five-story structure.

It is the first of an estimated 10 to 15 businesses in finance, tech and healthcare industries that will eventually call the repurposed office park home, said John Kenney, principal at the Casey Brown Company.

The lead tenant will make its interior improvements this fall. The publicly traded company, which buys consumer debt, is expected to take up residence in April of next year.

One of two large, interpretative murals created by Los Angeles-based painter John Park, The murals book-end the courtyard of the printing press building.

(Javier Laos/Photography-La Jolla Visions)

The enormity of the Encore commitment allows the developer to break up the campus’ remaining space into lease-able chunks as small as 10,000 square feet and as large as 125,000 square feet, said chief executive Casey Brown.

“We were really looking for that type of anchor tenant,” he said.

The firm and its leasing agency, CBRE, are expecting to reach 90 percent occupancy in the next 18 months. In that time, they also hope to secure a notable tech client to take the first floor of the press building and the second floor of both buildings. They’ve carved out an industrial-style loft with 30-foot ceilings in the north-west portion of the press building, and envision it linked by a large floating staircase to the second floor space for an open and connected unit spanning 125,000 square feet.

Ultimately the tech taker, should there be one, will need to be sold on the broader Mission Valley location just as much as the Ampersand property itself. Not considered one of the city’s premier employment centers, Mission Valley is in the midst of a residential, commercial and hospitality renaissance that, when realized, could elevate the region’s appeal.

Most significant is the redevelopment prospects of the 166-acre former Qualcomm Stadium site, which could result in housing, commercial projects and a public park along the San Diego River. That depends on whether voters support or reject ballot measures E or G this November. There are also several major Mission Valley projects planned or already in the works, including a $70 million makeover of the Town and Country resort, the substantial 230-acre Civita residential and retail project, and the eventual redevelopment of the Riverwalk golf course.

“Things are changing,” Brown said, referencing the hundreds of millions of dollars in real-estate investment going into the west side of Mission Valley.

The if-you-build-it, they-will-come mentality is still a bit rosy. With office environments used as employee recruitment and retention tools, employers put a lot of stock in neighborhood perks. But Brown and Kenney think they’ve outfitted Ampersand with enough extras to help prospective tenants fill in any holes left blank by the surrounding area.

jennifer.vangrove@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1840 Twitter: @jbruin