The old Pernicano’s property in North Pacific Beach, vacant since the family retired and closed their Italian restaurant in October 2019, has been sold and the property is being redeveloped.

The former restaurant building at 711 Turquoise St. has been razed on the 14,994-square-foot parcel to make way for a 44-unit apartment dwelling with subterranean parking.

Marcella Bothwell, chair of Pacific Beach Planning Group, noted that Pernicano’s redevelopment plans show 44 units. She said there is one two-bedroom unit, with the rest being studio- and one-bedroom units to be built over a 21-space underground garage.

“The project is three stories and is under the 30-foot coastal height limit,” said John Terrel, PBPG development chair. “Using Complete Communities, it goes from base density of 10 to 44.”

The City’s Complete Communities initiative is a program that includes planning strategies working together to create incentives to build homes near transit, provide more mobility choices, and enhance opportunities for places to walk, bike, relax, and play.

Michael Turk, CEO of PB-based KD Development, is redeveloping the Pernicano’s site. He was a longtime friend of the Pernicano family. He has built other housing developments in the neighborhood including a site next to Gelson’s Market at 730 Turquoise St. He owns the car wash down the street at 891 Turquoise St. and built a 20-unit residential development across the street from there.

“The (Pernicano) family offered it to me,” said Turk of how he first got involved in redeveloping the former restaurant property. He noted, “We have all the permits for it,” adding he hopes to start groundbreaking “in a week or two before it starts raining because we need to dig the basement out for the underground parking. This is a Complete Communities project with a bonus density, and it will probably take 14 to 16 months to build out.”

Turk said there will be 39 subterranean parking spaces. He noted he doesn’t have a price range for the new housing units yet, but added four to six of the units will be set aside for low- to moderate-income housing. “It will be very modern and every one of the units will have air conditioning and a washer and dryer,” he said. “We’ll also be putting solar into the project, and will offer to sell the power back to the tenants.”

Turk added tenants in the new building “should have ocean, bay, and mountain views, even though the building is not that high because there’s nothing there to block it.”

Iconic restaurateur John Pernicano at age 92 was still working seven days a week and performing until 2 a.m. at their family pizzeria right up until they closed their business. He noted at the time that, “My kids wanted to retire. How many people like me have been here 65 years, and the family with four kids for 50 years?” asked John of his family’s legacy of restaurants, that once numbered 10 throughout San Diego.

The original plan was for the family to sell the restaurant site to be redeveloped as a Mexican breakfast place, which never came to fruition.

A military veteran, John immigrated from Sicily to the United States with his family in 1906. John and his brothers moved to San Diego from Detroit in 1946. The family got into the restaurant business when John and his brother George began working for a Hillcrest bar. “They needed food, so my brother figured, ‘We’ll add pizza in the place, just a little oven,’” said John.

Early on, All Hallows Catholic Church in La Jolla held its religious services for a time in Pernicano’s while the Mt. Soledad church was under construction. “The altar was where the pizza counter is,” noted John.
John Pernicano died on July 23, 2020.