What’s up with the vacant building on Parkway and Jackson?

Y’all remember our intern Sophia Sleap? For this week’s top story, I asked how she reported on the mystery of a blighted building on the corner of Jackson and Parkway drives, which she said reiterated the importance of hyper-local storytelling for her. 

DS: What was your impression when you visited the site?
SS: The boarded up building didn’t look great. 

I was only there for about 45 minutes, but there was lots going on. Someone from the City of La Mesa was there taking photos for an inspection, and later a contractor arrived to clean the site. A driver passing by asked me if I was there to do something about the site. I told him I was reporting on it and asked him how he felt about it. He shouted, “Negatively!”

People are amped up about this empty site and really want to know what’s happening. It might not seem like much, one empty lot, but people deserve to know why it’s been vacant so long.

DS: What steps did you take to find out what’s happening at the site? 
SS: I saw that CBS8 reported that it was sold in February 2019 to “8303 Parkway Drive LLC” on PropertyShark, which doesn’t show up on the city’s business license page. I also used that page to track down the year the smog station’s business license expired to see how long it had been vacant.  Through desk research, I found an Instagram post from Cushman & Wakefield announcing that they had leased the property to Qdoba. I emailed Cushman & Wakefield, Qdoba and the city.  I most enjoyed reporting on the ground though: Speaking to the local businesses and the contractor. 

DS: Was there anything surprising you learned throughout this process? 
SS: Given that the project design was ratified by the council not long ago, I was pretty surprised when the representative from Qdoba said that the project is on hold.