New plans submitted for former Su Casa restaurant site in La Jolla

While an expansive lot facing La Jolla Boulevard that once housed Su Casa restaurant has sat empty the past three years, work has been going on behind the scenes to determine what will eventually go there.

New plans for a residential-commercial complex were filed last month with the city of San Diego for coastal development, site development and planned development permits to subdivide two parcels at 350 Playa del Sur and 6738 La Jolla Blvd. into nine lots.

The Playa del Sur property is the former site of a residential building; the La Jolla Boulevard lot is the former Su Casa site.

The project would build eight single residential units with seven accessory dwelling units, along with a mixed-use building with one residential unit and 801 square feet of retail space. The square footage of the residential units was not immediately available.

The city has different levels of review, known as processes, depending on the potential impact of a project. This development is considered Process 4, which includes review by local planning groups and the San Diego Planning Commission, whose decision would be appealable to the City Council. The decision to approve or deny the application will be made at a public hearing on a date not yet determined.

The applicant for the project is AVRP Studios, which has designed mixed-use, multifamily and commercial spaces across the San Diego area. In La Jolla, AVRP designed the Muse building at 1020 Prospect St.

AVRP representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.

The former Su Casa site has been vacant since fall 2022, when the restaurant building was demolished. Su Casa had been closed since October 2019, when owners Moishe and Batia Chernovetzky decided to shut it down after 52 years.

In January 2016, the La Jolla Community Planning Association gave its approval to a proposal presented by La Jolla architect Claude Anthony Marengo to demolish the building and construct a two-story mixed-use building, a two-story residential building, a three-story residential building and an underground parking garage.

The plan also was approved by the San Diego Planning Commission and the City Council in 2017.

However, upon retiring and closing the restaurant in 2019, Moishe Chernovetzy said he had no plans to pursue the project but instead would focus on finding a buyer for the property.