Iconic Clocktower Building in Village Being Sold to Goodwill Industries

Goodwill Industries is in the process of buying the landmark Creative Clocktower building at the corner of Spring Street and La Mesa Boulevard in The Village, according to the buyer and the seller’s agent.

Joe Yetter of the commercial real estate firm Cassidy Turley said Tuesday that the sale of the 16,000-square-foot property could be closed in the next few weeks at a price under the asking figure of $1.8 million.

“If we don’t have any final hiccups [in the due-diligence process], we’ll sell … by the end of the month,” said Yetter, who works out of a University Towne Centre office. He said he wasn’t sure about the ultimate use, but that when Goodwill officials toured the building they talked about a store on the first floor and offices upstairs.

A receptionist at the Goodwill office in San Diego said the building was being purchased, but “the transaction is not completed.”

The clocktower building—which figures in many iconic downtown images of Oktoberfest and Christmas in The Village—is at 8250 La Mesa Blvd. It houses  Fashion Exchange, a women's new and secondhand clothing store, and Stewart Title Co.

Informed of the potential sale, Fashion Exchange owner Kim Romano said: “That would be horrible. [But] it’s all up to God.”

She said she has a lease on another retail space two doors east, but her landlord is doing work there, so she has occupied the clocktower space since April.

“I was told I might be here until January,” she said Tuesday afternoon while hanging clothes in her showroom. “I love what I do. It doesn’t matter where I go.”

Office staff at Stewart Title (Suite 102 of the building) weren’t aware of the possible sale.

Yetter said the property—owned by San Diego County Credit Union via its Fresh Start Real Estate LLC arm—was acquired in a foreclosure two years ago. Records on loopnet.com call the building a “Trophy property with strong rental income stream.”

“This property maintains the identity of the Village and its local Merchants Association,” said loopnet.com. “This is THE MOST visible property in La Mesa.”

Bill Chopyk, La Mesa’s community development director, said Tuesday night that 7-Eleven sought to occupy the building two years ago—irking some downtown neighbors. But it couldn’t secure a liquor license and dropped its bid for the location.

Many residents recall the site as the longtime home of La Mesa Furniture.

Local historian James Newland says tax records indicate the tower building was erected in 1969, and “it was an antique shop for many years prior to the last few when it was split into smaller shops.”

The two-story structure sits on a very historic site, Newland says.

“The original Bank of La Mesa was built there in 1909 [with] noted architect Irving Gill designing the original building,” he said. “It shared space with the Park-Grable Investment Company, the big real estate developers of early La Mesa.”

A new bank building replaced the small original building in the early 1920s, he said. That was sold to the Bank of Italy (later Bank of America).  

“That ‘classical’ style building, typical of bank architecture in the early 20th century, was torn down for the current building,” said Newland, author of Images of America: La Mesa and an officer of the La Mesa Historical Society.

Goodwill is an international organization known for its thrift stores and helping provide jobs, job training and other services to “people with disabilities, those who lack education or job experience, and others facing challenges to finding employment,” according to its website.