CBRE Awarded Listing for THINK @ Millenia Office in Chula Vista

CBRE announced that it has been awarded the listing of the 398-plus-acre UniverCity at Chula Vista project. The project's first phase, THINK @ Millenia Office (THINK), broke ground last month.

Chris Pascale and Tom Turner of CBRE's San Diego office are marketing THINK @ Millenia Office for lease on behalf of the City of Chula Vista.

"CBRE is thrilled to assist the City of Chula Vista in leasing the city's first speculative office building in over 20 years," said Mr. Turner of CBRE. "As a Class A masterpiece, it is a fitting way to jump-start the transformative UniverCity project."

The 168,000-sq.-ft.-state-of-the-art Class A office space will be the first speculative office building in Chula Vista in over 20 years. The building features up to 108,000 sq. ft. of office space for lease with additional opportunities on-site to build a shovel-ready adjacent 150,000 sq. ft Class A office building and a 6,100 sq. ft. amenity building.

The project offers a chance to connect higher education partners through CBRE’s public institutions and education solutions practice with leading industry clusters to expand access to higher education and strengthen the talent pipeline in South County.

CBRE's Mr. Turner added, "The ideal tenant would be forward-thinking users in higher education and industry leaders in aerospace, cleantech, cybersecurity, defense, engineering, life science, healthcare, media and entertainment and telecommunications, supporting quality jobs in the top growing industry sectors in the thriving San Diego region."

A new city library will anchor the building and occupy 60,000 sq. ft. of space within the four-story building. This will be the newest library in the city since 1995, and it will include an auditorium, conference rooms, a makerspace, a small business incubator and a passport office that will serve as a regional amenity. The project was partly supported by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.

Located at 1785 Millenia Avenue, THINK held a groundbreaking ceremony last month on September 25. McCarthy will serve as the general contractor delivering the project in the fall of 2025.

"McCarthy is grateful for the opportunity to redefine the entry point of UniverCity with a state-of-the-art Class A office building that includes the first public library built in eastern Chula Vista in nearly 30 years," said Bob Betz, executive vice president at McCarthy. "Our team of builders is deeply committed to the City and Millenia Master Plan, a mixed-use urban planning venture, which will transform the community where our partners live, work and play."

Gensler is the architect on the project and has combined a shifting curtainwall façade with cantilevered floor lines into its architectural design.

"The UniverCity project is a world-class institutional multi-use building at the heart of the Millenia project in Chula Vista. The Class A features and amenities will deliver a top-of-the-market project exceeding more recent projects in North County. A focus on the occupant’s well-being is featured through a central communicating stair and exterior decks with moveable wall elements blurring the line between inside and out," said Darrel Fullbright, principal and design director at Gensler.

THINK @ Millenia Office campus is the first of three UniverCity at Chula Vista planned projects, all with secured entitlements. Future plans for the UniverCity at Chula Vista project call for an additional 1.7 million sq. ft. INVENT Campus across Millenia Avenue from the THINK Campus and the UniverCity site on 383 acres.

Chesnut Properties is developing the project. Lee Chesnut added, "I am proud and so thankful for the opportunity to work with the City of Chula Vista leadership to deliver the first phase of UniverCity at the THINK Campus at Millenia. In 2015, I set out to pursue a vision for world-class, high-performance buildings that would become the place where great things will happen and that vision is now coming to life."

The project is located just 20 minutes south of downtown San Diego and the San Diego International Airport and offers quick access to Brown Field Municipal Airport. It is located within the highly amenitized master-planned community of Millenia and provides a walkable distance from Otay Ranch Town Center, which has numerous retail and dining options.