Revitalization plans for San Marcos’ Restaurant Row will include housing, business space

The redevelopment of San Marcos’ famed Restaurant Row has company next door. The building just to the west of Restaurant Row is being targeted for redevelopment.

The old Sears building at 1100 W. San Marcos Blvd. has been vacant for 15 years since the store closed in 2009. Lennar Homes of California has proposed a project with 71 residential townhome units and around 6,000 square feet of commercial space on the lot.

Lennar Homes is also the developer for the Restaurant Row project, which will include over 200 housing units, 10,000 square feet of commercial space, a park and a skate park.

While the Sears building project is technically separate from the Restaurant Row project, Sean del Solar, Senior Planner with the City of San Marcos, says Lennar Homes will be developing the Sears site in coordination with the adjacent project and will be architectural complementary.

“Their goal with that is to enhance the buildings and make them more cohesive, so between the two projects there will be a lot more east-west access,” del Solar said.

The old Sears building is located between the Regal movie theater and Restaurant Row, so the revitalization of the old Sears building will make for a rebuilt, remodeled strip of property that flows from Restaurant Row west into the Sears building then into the Regal movie theater on San Marcos Bloulevard.

The addition of hundreds of residences puts critically needed housing close to places of employment.

“It provides that connection between job and residences to really lower the amount of miles people are commuting to work, and hopefully lowers the amount of trips between the two,” said del Solar.

To ease traffic concerns, there will be a new multi-way with a separate lane that will front the properties.

“It’s going to hopefully improve circulation throughout the site along San Marcos Boulevard. It will create greater access to those commercial sites, and provide slower, local traffic that will enhance restaurants and things that will now be there. It will go along way to provide a really great frontage for San Marcos Boulevard,” said del Solar.

The project to rebuild the old Sears building is expected to go the San Marcos City Council for final approval in December.