Border Project Will Feature Pedestrian Crossing

A new pedestrian port of entry will be the keynote of the Las Americas project, a huge cross-border project near San Diego.

Also under way in the San Diego area is Las Americas, a major cross-border project, a $260-million retail and entertainment complex. Scheduled to be built in three phases, it will eventually link the U.S. and Mexico with a 150-foot (45.7-meter) high pedestrian bridge. The first phase, 370,000 sq. ft. (34,373 sq. m.) of retail and restaurant space, opened last November. The second phase, which will include a public library and 295,000 more sq. ft. (27,405 sq. m.) of retail space, will open in Spring 2003.
        Due to the international complexities of the project, a public-private partnership was created to oversee development. The San Diego Redevelopment Agency entered into a partnership with LandGrant Development in 1998 to create a master plan and sponsor the bridge. Through its partnership, the San Diego Redevelopment Agency will contribute $20 million over the next 30 years to reimburse costs of public improvements made by LandGrant.
        In April 2000, LandGrant formed a joint venture with JER Partners, a global real estate investment firm headquartered in McLean, Calif., to provide additional capital needed to develop and operate Las Americas. No state or federal funds are involved. The project has already created 3,400 new construction jobs. When all phases are complete, Las Americas will create 3,000 new jobs and more than $100 million in annual salaries and benefits.
        C. Samuel Marasco III, president of San Diego-based Land Grant Development, says the signature element of the project will be the bridge, a pedestrian port of entry.
        "We are immediately adjacent to the current port of entry, which is the busiest in the world with 104 milion people passing through each year," he says. "Almost 20 million are pedestrians."
        The bridge, which as a port of entry must be approved by the presidents of both the U.S. and Mexico, has been in the permit process for three years. Marasco expects eventual approval and completion of the project by late 2004.
        "The bridge will be the first bi-national monument," Marasco says. "It will become an international icon."