FEATURE ARTICLE, MAY 2004

HOME IS WHERE THE PARK IS
H.G. Fenton Company’s San Diego roots fuel master-planned business park development.
Brian A. Lee

When creating an industrial-based development like Fenton Technology Park in San Diego, it’s important to know the market, the city and the type of product tenants want. H.G. Fenton Company, developer of the 131-acre master-planned business park in central San Diego, takes it a little further. After all, the company helped build the city.

Located in central San Diego, Fenton Technology Park will feature 1 million square feet of industrial, office and tech space.

“H.G. Fenton itself has been in San Diego for [nearly] 100 years,” says Kevin Hill, vice president of leasing for the firm. “It started out initially as a materials company helping to construct the roads and the infrastructure of San Diego many years ago.”

Founded in 1906, H.G. Fenton Company acquired a large amount of land to mine for the materials trade. As San Diego expanded as a city, the company found itself in the catbird’s seat with regard to the development of its real estate. In 1998, H.G. Fenton sold off its mining operations to Hansen Aggregates and focused on its real estate portfolio, which consists of about 3 million square feet of property that it owns, leases and manages from Carlsbad, California, to the South Bay. Hill estimates that 80 percent of H.G. Fenton’s assets are industrial, mostly due to its large warehouse and distribution holdings in the Miramar, California, area.

“Our bread-and-butter product is single-story, concrete tilt-up [industrial product] with a warehouse roll-up door in the back,” he says.

The first two phases of Fenton Technology Park will feature just that. The approximately 43,000-square-foot first phase, set to break ground at the end of the year, will consist of three buildings. In late 2005, H.G. Fenton will begin the second phase, which will contain around 85,000 square feet of similar industrial offerings. “This product will be divisible from 2,000 square feet to 12,000 square feet,” says Hill. “We can serve a variety of sizes and range of tenants. Lots 5 and 6 (the final phase) are where we plan to do build-to-suit work for a corporate, campus-type tenant, and we could do upwards of 300,000 square feet on those two lots combined.” Voit Commercial Brokerage is the leasing agent for the first two phases of the development.

With the company focusing solely on San Diego, H.G. Fenton’s hometown pride is reflected in the unique elements of projects like Fenton Technology Park. Nearly 35 acres of the property have been dedicated as open space, making it, in Hill’s words, “a very nice, aesthetically pleasing park to be in.” BioSite Inc., a medical diagnostics company, purchased 26 acres in the center of the property where it will build an 800,000-square-foot campus. “The draw or the attraction to be within this campus will be just tremendous for our industrial product,” says Hill, noting the appeal that BioSite’s commitment creates for prospective tenants in complementary industries.

Hill points to the market itself as another distinguishing factor for Fenton Technology Park, which will offer more than 1 million square feet of industrial, office and tech uses. A new, state-of-the-art business park in central San Diego — an area lacking large amounts of developable land — is sure to turn heads in the industry. “There are really only 1,000 acres of land in the central part of the city,” says Hill. “A business park of this size has really not been developed in the area for at least 10 years. We wanted to build a quality business park that would provide jobs and nice functional places for people to live and work.”

H.G. Fenton Company has not forgotten its past or its road-building prowess. When it sold its mining operations to Hansen Aggregates, the firm kept the west side of the property on which to build Fenton Technology Park. The two companies in the deal were not finished though. They were required to put through an extension of Camino Santa Fe, a nearly one-mile-long stretch of six-lane road designed to alleviate north-south traffic between Mira Mesa Boulevard and Miramar Road and help motorists get to and from the busy 805 and 15 freeways. At the same time, the new route will enhance the access of tenants to the business park.

Providing increased access, a top-notch location and quality product in an attractive setup, Fenton’s Technology Park embodies its developer’s philosophy of operating with pride for one’s work and home. “We’re big advocates of the community,” says Hill. “As a company, we certainly strive to develop in such a way that we complement the value of the quality places.”

©2004 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.