A plan to redevelop the property where Chase Bank sits at 7777 Girard Ave. in La Jolla has effectively been scrapped after Chase bought the building from local investors.
The group of about 30 investors purchased the building and the parking lot behind it in July 2022. They then drafted plans to convert the site into a mixed-use development with commercial spaces on the ground floor and residential units on the upper floor. The plans garnered from local planning groups last year.
After the group invested around $14 million in the project, Chase Bank approached the investors earlier this year with an offer to buy the building for $18.25 million.
The bank had had a long-term sublease on the property from the Bettles family, who had a 60-year ground lease that started with the former Montana-based landowners.
“I felt a responsibility to present the [Chase] offer to the group,” said Jack McGrory, one of the local investors. “It’s unfortunate, but they wanted to sell. I was on the other side of that conversation; I didn’t want to sell. But the money was too good, so they wanted to take it and run.”
Escrow closed June 24, according to Flocke & Avoyer Commercial Real Estate.
The investors’ intention in buying the property was to “tear down that eyesore and build something new that would be a transformation for that corner,” McGrory said. “We always thought it wasn’t the most attractive building on Girard, and we thought we could develop it and make more improvements to the place.”
McGrory said Chase committed verbally to do “several million [dollars] in renovations” but did not provide anything in writing.
Chase representatives declined to comment.
“Next time, I’m going to make sure we have investors aligned with what we’re doing,” McGrory said. “We want to make a change in La Jolla. That’s why I thought we were doing this. There will be other opportunities and we will try to get a more aligned group. We want to do more deals like this, so I’m looking for the next deal. But this one is closed.”
McGrory also is part of a group that purchased the building occupied by Warwick’s bookstore at 7812 Girard. In 2021, after Warwick’s landlord received an unsolicited $8.3 million cash bid to buy the building, about three dozen community , most of them from La Jolla, quickly pooled their resources and bought the building. Then they gave store owner Nancy Warwick a 10-year lease with two options for five-year renewals.
In 2023, McGrory helped a group of teachers buy the La Jolla Music school at 7423 Girard to prevent it from being sold to an outside buyer. ♦
Chase Bank had not formerly owned the Girard Avenue property but was a tenant under a sublease. This article has been updated to correct that information.
