San Diego developer Tim Foley turned what could have been a simple North Park apartment development into one with many moving parts, including a 2,300 square-foot house that had to be relocated.

Foley’s plan was to build a 19-unit apartment complex — the Avanti Apartments — on a Ray Street lot, but first he had to contend with the house that was already there.

“It was a beautiful house. It was modeled after an adobe-style house,” Foley said. “The house was built only four years ago, so we didn’t want to crush it. We chose to relocate the house in a neighborhood that had houses that were very similar.”

Foley did raze an existing structure on a Sydney Place hillside lot to make way for the moved house, but he said that building had been condemned because of structural damage caused by erosion.

“It’s a hillside lot and the foundation was bad and it had been red-flagged,” Foley said. He plans to renovate the house he moved and build an additional 1,600 square-foot house next to it as rental units. “The house itself didn’t get damaged at all,” Foley said.  Moving the house cost about $45,000.  He estimated it would cost an additional $250,000 to complete the Sydney Place project, which he said should be finished by summer.

This isn’t the first time that Foley’s moved a house to clear a development site. He did it a few years back with a craftsman-style house, but it didn’t go so well.
 “It basically fell apart,” Foley said. “They’ve gotten a lot better with the technology of moving these things. They have all these huge beams to make sure the house doesn’t sway or move. They pick it up with these straps.”
This time, the house didn’t fall apart, but moving it was challenging because it had to be lifted over a 35-foot tree that was next to it, Foley said.

With the Ray Street site cleared, Foley is starting construction on the $14 million Avanti Apartments and expects to finish them by the end of the year.

The six-story building will feature views “of pretty much the whole city and Balboa Park” from the third floor up, Foley said.

The apartments will average 1,200 square feet with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. They’ll have “all the latest and greatest” in appliances and finishes, including hardwood floors, Foley said.

His company — Foley Development — has several other ongoing projects, including renovation of a seven story parking garage on Fifth Avenue and a 150,000 square-foot mixed use project that will take up the entire 2100 block of Third Avenue between Hawthorn and Ivy streets and half the 2100 block of Fourth Avenue. 

An Escondido office building has been sold for nearly $2.6 million.
The 8,429 square-foot Canterbury Corporate Plaza, 940 Canterbury Place, was acquired by The Law Office of Louis Gabbara.
The seller was Tim Foley of Foley Enterprises Inc.
Nick Totah, first vice president of investments of The Totah Group in Marcus & Millichap’s San Diego office, represented Foley.
The Totah Group also represented the buyer.
Constructed in 2002, the building was fully leased at the time of the sale.
Tenants include Am Wins Group Insurance and Oakwood Escrow.
Real estate reporter Ray Huard may be reached at rhuard@sdbj or 858-277-8904.

FOLEY PARKING GARAGE @ 5th and A. Purchased in 2018. A 7 story parking garage in the center of business district downtown San Diego which will undergo a complete remodel with new Elevators, Stairs and approximately 12,000 sq.ft. of commercial space. On the hard corner of 5th & A.

A chunk of Bankers Hill, including the building that once housed The Daily Transcript, is being redeveloped by Tim Foley of Rancho Santa Fe. Foley said he retired in 2010 but came out of retirement two years ago and restarted Foley Development when two of his three children expressed interest in becoming developers themselves.

Tim owns and operates Foley Development, a company he found-ed in 1982. The company now has nine large commercial projects underway, including the Daily Transcript Project in the heart of Bankers Hill, which will be renamed Foley Financial Center. The project includes rehabbing the existing 22,000-square-foot office building, adding a new 21,000-square-foot office building and building 100 new high-end luxury apartments on a corner-to-cor-ner block on 3rd Avenue. It is scheduled for completion in 2018 and early 2019.