It’s a good-looking piece of tuna that Tsuyoshi Maruyama is preparing for the evening’s dinner he will be serving his customers at Sushi Maru in downtown San Diego. He just bought the place a few months ago.
“I wanted to get something close to Little Italy, and when I saw these buildings, we thought, you know, it might be a possibility,” Maruyama said as he next brought out freshly-boiled Hairy Crabs straight from Japan.
He said business has been great since he opened, but there is a bit of an eyesore less than a block away: the vacant building at 101 Ash St.
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“Some homeless people hang out there. They should do something in there. It should be cleaner. It should be better,” he said.
The sushi chef says he’s heard of the controversial history of the building. Here’s a quick summary:
In 2017, the city leased the building with the intent to place city staff in it. That plan fell apart due to costly renovations and safety concerns.
Five years later, in 2022, San Diego paid it off in a transaction still under legal dispute. It placed the building up for sale in 2023.
A deal with a developer to turn it into subsidized housing fell apart in April.
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Three new proposals are now on the table from different “entities” as the city called them. According to the mayor’s office, two of the proposals offered to turn the building into housing for low-income families. The third proposal offered to turn it into housing and support services for the homeless.
The three proposals will be presented to the city council during a closed-session meeting likely on Sept. 23.
“Hopefully, that could help our business as well, but I feel there should be people living there, and maybe there could be less homeless,” Maruyama said.
He added that he hopes whatever they do, the building gets cleaned up, brings in more business to the area and doesn’t just sit there anymore.
