While Downtown San Diego doesn’t carry the same fame for penthouse properties as cities like New York, San Francisco or Chicago, we have those cities beat hands down on weather; and the price tag on a penthouse in Downtown San Diego is pretty awesome in comparison.

I’ll preface this article with what is defined as a penthouse.  Many people believe that a penthouse is the sole property located at the top of a residential building.  While this may be true in many cases, it’s becoming more frequent that penthouses are the top 2-3 floors of the building and quite often there are more than one penthouse residence per floor so you may end up with 4-6 “penthouse properties” in a particular high-rise tower or condo community.

With the cost of construction today, builders don’t find it economically beneficial to build and sell just one top floor property in the San Diego market that doesn’t command sales prices of $15-$30 million like those of the aforementioned cities.  In no particular order, these are the best penthouse buildings and properties in Downtown San Diego’s 92101 zip code.

To keep this article brief, I’ll mention 5 key features for each of the properties in question, but you’ll find two underlying themes – newer which generally means less custom and older which translates into highly customized.  Keep in mind that older in San Diego might only be 12 -25 years old so it’s all relative in comparison to what might be considered old in Brooklyn or Manhattan.

The Best Downtown San Diego Penthouses

Bayside – It’s simply one of the best options in Downtown for a newer luxury building (2009) with two great penthouse floor-plans to chose from on the 34-36th floors.  The amenities and finishes in the building are top notch and the location is adjacent to Little Italy and front row to the San Diego Bay & the new county park.  These are among the larger penthouse residences in Downtown San Diego (3226 sf and 3151 sf) and because each residences occupies half of the entire floor-plate of the building, views are generally 270 degrees.  The 35 & 36th floors offer 10′ ceilings with floor to ceiling windows and the kitchens feature handmade Italian Snaidero cabinetry which are far nicer than any developer delivered cabinetry in other newer buildings.

The Mark –  a rare and true Downtown San Diego Penthouse that encompasses the top 2 floors of the building (32 & 33) with nobody above or beside.  The developer did it right on this property!  They left the space as an incomplete shell that would be built out by the buyer as we so often see people rip out all of the standard developer finishes on properties like this.  The space includes an impressive 3742 sf of interior space plus 1714 sf of exterior space.  Ceiling heights are at 14′ and the 270 degree views are straight south into the ballpark and over the bay and Coronado Island as well as East & West.  We just sold this property in March of 2014 and I can’t wait to see how the buyer builds it out.

Park Laurel – Located along the western entrance to San Diego’s famous Balboa Park sits the beautiful twin 14 story towers known as Park Laurel. These two towers contain 4 penthouses each (8 total) with 4715 sf on two levels including a 45′ wrap around terrace on the lower level and private balcony on the upper levels.  Each penthouse at Park Laurel is a corner unit and views include either the San Diego bay or Balboa Park along with city views of downtown or uptown depending on the orientation.  Ceiling heights range from 9′ to 18′ and the builder actually dropped the sofits so you can hide recessed lights and speakers in the ceiling unlike most towers.  These residences are truly exquisite and one of the unique features of Park Laurel is that while it encompasses an entire city block, there are only 94 residences so it is very private.   Park Laurel was built in 2003, but most of these penthouses have had substantial custom remodels so they all have their own distinct character.

Sapphire Tower – The Penthouse series at Sapphire Tower includes floors 24 -32 so there are actually 9 floors of penthouse residences with 2 residences per floor (18 in total) with their own private elevator foyer.  Much like Bayside, there are 2 residences per floor that span from east to west so you are either the residence on the north side of the tower (2981 sf) or south side of the tower (2823 sf).  Each penthouse features floor to ceiling glass with 10′ 6″ ceiling heights so the volume of each room is far from average (9′ ceiling heights).  Because the building was built in 2008, many of the properties are still not highly customized, but the developer delivered them with acceptable finishes.  What I really like about these Downtown San Diego Penthouses is that they layout was well thought out and there is a lot of room for customization that would make these among the more spectacular properties in town.  Another feature unique to Sapphire is that the luxury high-rise tower has only 97 residences, many of which are 2nd or 3rd homes so it’s a quiet and calm place to live.

Pinnacle Marina Tower – Once known as Pinnacle Museum Tower, this high-rise tower has always commanded the highest price per sq ft for luxury condos in Downtown San Diego.  The Pinnacle Penthouse has always been a bit of a mystery though and is an interesting topic among luxury property aficionados.  Built in 2005 and sold from the developer, there were originally two 2-story penthouses on the 35th & 36th floors that featured 5000 sf and one owner purchased both and combined the two residences for a total of 10,000 sf.  The comment has been made by building staff that the owner has been renovating ever since the day she purchased the properties so only ones imagination can paint a picture of what the floor plan and finishes look like.  The Pinnacle is a premier building with beautiful amenities, great location, 10′ ceilings and among the best views in Downtown.

Harbor Club – With quite possibly the best location in downtown and certainly the coolest address at 100 Harbor Drive & 200 Harbor Drive, it’s hard to not be happy at Harbor Club.  Built in 1992, each of the Harbor Club towers features a penthouse that spans the top 2 stories of the building including 4400 sf of interior space along with 3 private terraces and unique curved glass architectural features.  Both of the Harbor Club penthouses are highly custom as they’ve both been renovated with the utmost attention to detail.  The 360 degree views are priceless, but since we must put a price on everything, pricing for these properties today range from $7m – $9m respectively.

Other buildings with notable Downtown San Diego Penthouses include Park Place, Renaissance, Horizons, The Grande and Electra.  For information regarding these penthouses, please give us a call: 619-356-3099