Game time: Pangaea developer must sign tennis star for proposed Chula Vista Bayfront complex by July

The development team proposing a tennis-anchored sports complex on the Chula Vista Bayfront has less than six months to make good on a promise to procure a tennis superstar if it wants to keep the mega proposal in play.

On Jan. 1, the team behind the project, named Pangaea, entered into a short-term, exclusive negotiating agreement, or ENA, with the San Diego Unified Port District, concerning the development of a 124-acre site at 990 Bay Blvd. known as the Otay District.

The contract gives Pangaea Development, LLC, until July 1 to complete six key milestones, the most consequential of which is providing the port with proof, in the form of a non-binding letter of intent, that an elite professional athlete organization is committed to the tennis center portion of the project.

The agreement also lays the groundwork for the Board of Port Commissioners to extend the term for an additional two years should the development team meet the initial ENA requirements, which include completing a market demand study, submitting a project description and land-use plan, entering into a project labor agreement with unions and implementing a public outreach plan.

The executed ENA is the result of the board’s action in July to authorize the contract. Commissioners also voted at the time to waive the agency’s policy for a competitive solicitation process.

“The Board of Port Commissioners expressed interest in further evaluating the Pangaea proposal, and the exclusive negotiating agreement allows staff to conduct further due diligence over the next six months,” agency spokesperson Brianne Mundy Page said in a statement provided to the Union-Tribune. “Pangaea’s interest in this site reflects the strong momentum created by the successful opening of the Gaylord Pacific, which has helped position the Chula Vista Bayfront as a magnet for investment and job-creating projects.”

The port is aware of a proposed athlete, but declined to disclose the name because of a confidentiality agreement with the developer, the spokesperson said.

Pangaea Development, LLC is 100% owned by Gerald Divaris, who is the chairman of Virginia Beach-based commercial real estate firm Divaris Group of Companies, records provided to the Union-Tribune show. Divaris subsidiary The McGarey Group, local design firm Tucker Sadler Architects Inc. and public-private financing expert Provident Resources Group are part of the development team, but do not currently have ownership stakes in the development entity.

The development team did not respond to inquiries from the Union-Tribune.

“Divaris is pleased to have the opportunity to work with the port on this proposed project and looks forward to the work ahead,” Divaris said in a statement provided by the port.

The Pangaea project was first submitted to the port as an unsolicited, top-secret proposal in February 2024, with agency staff quietly evaluating the idea for 18 months before commissioners publicly convened to approve the negotiation contract.

The project, as presented to the board in July and described in documents, calls for a large tennis facility with a central stadium court seating up to 18,000 people and 34 surrounding courts of varying size, surfaces and purpose. The tennis complex is complemented by a water polo academy, four hotels, a retail village, three ocean-oriented office buildings and a public trail.

Pangaea also features an IMAX theater by Paragon Entertainment and an upscale mini-golf venue co-owned by Tiger Woods called PopStroke, the project proposal document states.

The ENA notes that a multi-purpose stadium with up to 80,000 seats is also being contemplated for a future phase of development.

The project includes 1.4 million square feet of space for sports and wellness uses, 300,000 square feet of space for retail stores, 722,970 square feet for hotel use, 464,250 square feet of office space and 64.9 acres of open space, Tucker Sadler CEO Greg Mueller said in July.

The Pangaea group is seeking to take over the Otay District within the Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan, a currently undeveloped area south of the recently opened Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center.

The site was the former home of the South Bay Power Plant and is subject to restrictions and environmental protections identified in several documents, including the environmental impact prepared for the Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan and a 2010 legal settlement between the port, the city of Chula Vista and the Bayfront Coalition.

The port’s short-term agreement with the development team is designed to help the agency vet the legitimacy of an ambitious plan that has ties to a previous proposal that went nowhere. Divaris and Tucker Sadler previously teamed on a proposal for a soccer and hotel complex on the same site. It fizzled because a former partner, Petra Development, did not appear to have ties to the MLS, as it maintained.