Two notable residential conversions in Point Loma that were slated for openings this year seemingly are headed in opposite directions.
Ambient Communities says it is putting the finishing touches on its redevelopment of the former Consulate Hotel at 2901 Nimitz Blvd. into the Celeste apartment project and anticipates completion in March, with move-ins beginning as early as February.
However, the fate of the former Imperial House apartment development a few blocks away on Upshur Street is much less clear.
Celeste
The Consulate Hotel was built in 1971 and closed in 2019. The six-story building remains the tallest in Point Loma, as its construction predated the 30-foot coastal height limit.
Encinitas-based Ambient Communities bought the building for $17.4 million in February 2025.
Robert Honer, who started the company in 2011, called the location “difficult” for a hotel.
“There’s thousands of hotel rooms on Shelter Island and around Harbor Island that are always going to get more attention for their location,” he said.
Furthermore, in the Consulate’s final years, many complaints about pest infestations were filed with the city of San Diego and dozens of calls from the property were logged with the Police Department.
Since the hotel closed, the building has been used as a training facility for police and been intermittently occupied by homeless people. At one point in 2020, the city considered buying the vacant hotel as potential permanent housing for homeless residents.
Robert Honer (left) of Ambient Communities and Jeff Cole of C2 Builders Group stand outside the former Consulate Hotel in Point Loma, which they are converting into the Celeste apartments. (C2 Builders Group)
Jeff Cole of C2 Builders Group, a contractor involved in the Celeste project, told the San DiegoBusiness Journal that the property would be a “Class A” apartment structure.
“We think there’s a great affordability play,” Honer said. “Because of the size of the units, we’re able to rent them out at relatively low rates.”
Base rent is anticipated to range from $2,000 to $3,000 a month, with rent concessions for earlytenants who sign leases for 12 months or longer.
Four of the 127 units are designated as affordable for very low income residents, meaning the building qualifies for exemption from parking requirements through city incentives. However, Honer said the project features a subterranean parking garage as well as a surface parking lot, amounting to 75 spaces.
Honer said the project also will feature a residential lounge, a large communal kitchen, a pool and a fire pit. The views in all directions are unparalleled for the area, he added.
An interest page for prospective tenants is at celestepointloma.com.
Renderings depict (from left) the Celeste patio, pool and residential lounge. (Provided by Robert Honer)
Honer said the building’s structural integrity is excellent since it is made with reinforced masonry blocks, with very few cracks.
Most of the changes for the renovation are in the interior, he said.
“There was a lot of deferred maintenance with old cast-iron pipes, old electrical systems,” Honer said. “From an infrastructure standpoint, it was in very bad shape.”
The renovations retrofitted each unit with cooking and washing appliances and new windows and ventilation and updated the building from a single electrical meter to an individual meter for each unit.
Also, “as a 1970s building, it lacked waterproofing above the podium deck, which led to severe deterioration of the concrete and rebar protecting the parking structure,” according to a representative of C2 Builders.
Former Imperial House
While the Celeste project moves ahead, the former Imperial House apartment building at 2828 Upshur St. — at one time slated for luxury redevelopment — sits untouched with no clear path forward.
The property at 2828 Upshur St. in Point Loma, formerly known as the Imperial House apartments, is surrounded by a construction fence. (Tyler Faurot)
The two-story, 54-unit building, constructed in 1961, was designed by Modernist architect John August Reed. Newspaper clippings from 1960 anticipating its opening detailed its emulation of then-contemporary Japanese decor.
Now the building is vacant and dilapidated, with broken windows and planks of wood falling off the facade.
A 1960 newspaper clipping describes the then-upcoming Imperial House apartments in Point Loma. (Provided by Eric DuVall)
According to the San Diego County assessor’s office, the building was purchased by Gatehouse Partners Point Loma LLC in June 2021 for just over $16 million.
At one point, Pacific Beach-based Black Iron Development planned to renovate the building into luxury condominiums called Yacht Club Villas, with scheduled completion in March this year.
But on Jan. 5, Black Iron Chief Executive Ralph Giannella said he and the company are no longer involved, though the project was still listed on its website two days later.
Gatehouse Partners manager Timothy Hill did not respond to requests for comment about the status of the property.
City of San Diego development records for the site indicate that some construction permit applications called for conversion of storage space in the garage into 11 accessory dwelling units, installing a washer and dryer in 44 apartment units, updating the building’s air conditioning and windows, installing a new rooftop deck and remodeling two stairways.
City records show a handful of names have been attached to the property in recent years. Phase 3 Construction was listed as the licensed contractor on several permit applications from 2021 to 2023. But Phase 3 President Jeremy Turner said the company is no longer involved.
An expired application notice posted outside the property names Robert Bateman of San Diego Land Engineering Inc. Bateman did not respond to requests for comment.
The most recent application listed on the city website was for a tentative map and coastal development permit dated in February 2025, around when construction was expected to have begun for Yacht Club Villas. But the application was withdrawn due to “inactivity.”
The corner of Shafter and Upshur streets is backdropped by the dilapidated Imperial House building. (Tyler Faurot)
Court records show a lawsuit was filed in 2023 against Giannella and Hill, among other defendants, alleging they pursued the purchase of the Upshur Street property in violation of a contractual non-circumvention clause and that they “conspired to form a separate, competing entity.”
The plaintiff was Nick Gottuso, whom the filing said was a manager of Gatehouse Multifamily LLC along with Giannella, Hill and others.
The case was dismissed in January 2024.