Chula Vista Mayor John McCann said he was divesting himself from a real estate company he co-owns with his wife after Voice of San Diego asked about the firm’s apparent preparations to sell real estate in a $1 billion bayfront luxury high-rise condominium project McCann has helped to promote and facilitate as a city leader.
Coronado Shores Co., the real estate and property management company McCann co-owns with his wife, Myllissa, registered with the San Diego County Recorder’s Office in 2018 and again 2023 to do business under the alternate names of Amara Bay Real Estate and Amara Bay Property Management.
Amara Bay is a 35-acre $1 billion residential, commercial and hotel project currently under construction on the Chula Vista bayfront adjacent to the just-opened Gaylord Pacific Resort and Convention Center.
Both projects are part of a larger Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan adopted jointly by Chula Vista and the Port of San Diego in 2012 to transform the city’s once industrial bayfront into what port and city officials call a world-class residential, commercial and tourist destination.
When completed, the Amara Bay project will feature seven high-rise condominium towers, some as tall as 18 stories, commercial office space and a 250-room hotel set amidst pedestrian walkways, lush landscaping and public gathering places.
Though construction started only last year, and though the project’s developer said his company has not yet made arrangements to sell or market condominiums in the development, real estate agencies already are jockeying to sell property at Amara Bay, setting up promotional websites and encouraging prospective customers to register interest or sign up for social media updates.
By registering a business name that matches the name of the project, Coronado Shores Co. appears poised to join the rush to do business in a signature part of the bayfront master plan McCann helped to bring about as a city official.
In response to a list of questions about Coronado Shores Co. and Amara Bay sent by Voice, McCann said, “I do not run the day-to-day operations for the Coronado Shores Company and have divested my ownership in the company. I do know that the Coronado Shores Company does not have any financial or business relationship with Pacifica [Companies, the developer of the Amara Bay project].”
McCann did not immediately answer a follow-up question about when he divested from Coronado Shores Co. McCann lists the company as a primary source of income on his most recent financial disclosure form. On the form, McCann says the company is worth more than $1 million and pays him more than $100,000 annually.
McCann said registering to do business under the Amara Bay name did not necessarily mean Coronado Shores Co. intends to sell real estate at the Amara Bay project. “This would be like naming your company ‘San Diego’ Plumbing,” he said.
He directed further questions to his wife, Myllissa, who he said runs Coronado Shores Co. Myllissa McCann did not immediately respond to a list of follow-up questions about the Amara Bay business name or whether Coronado Shores Co. intends to sell real estate in the Amara Bay development.
McCann, who first won a seat on the Chula Vista City Council in 2002 and was elected mayor in 2022, regularly mentions his close involvement in the decades-long planning and approval of the bayfront master plan. McCann is currently running to fill a vacant South County seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.
In 2018, McCann participated in a key City Council vote approving a complex permitting and revenue-sharing plan for the master plan’s Gaylord hotel project. The plan included an equally key step forward for Amara Bay, tying the condominium project into the overall bayfront redevelopment. As part of the financing plan, Pacifica Companies, the Amara Bay project’s developer, agreed to pay $3 million to help underwrite the hotel’s infrastructure costs.
Speaking last week at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Gaylord hotel, McCann said he “was honored to be on the Chula Vista City Council [when] we started the official effort to master-plan the Chula Vista bayfront to create a top-notch destination for our residents…I remember countless late nights at Council meetings.”
McCann expressed similar sentiments at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Amara Bay project last year, saying he “was very honored to be on the City Council when we master-planned the bayfront. And we’ve gone through over 19 different agencies, but we were able to bring people together [and] work together and collaborate. And we’ve been very successful.”
Speaking to news reporters after posing with a ceremonial shovel at the groundbreaking, McCann said the project would “have great dining. It’s going to have hotels. It’s going to have housing. And it’s just going to be a wonderful place to be able to come down and enjoy. It’s incredibly important. It’s going to be the economic driver for the region.”
In addition to registering the Amara Bay Real Estate business name, McCann’s real estate company also appears to have created a promotional Facebook page advertising real estate in the Amara Bay project.
As of the morning of Thursday, May 15, Coronado Shores Co. was listed as the owner of a Facebook page called “Amara Bay – A Chula Vista Bayfront Community.” The page listed in its “Intro” and “About” sections Coronado Shores Co.’s name, address, phone number and the email address of McCann’s wife, Myllissa.
It was Myllissa McCann who filed and signed Coronado Shores Co.’s initial application to do business under the name Amara Bay Real Estate in 2018. The McCanns’ son, John McCann, Jr., who also works for Coronado Shores, Co., renewed the business name in 2023.
“At The Shores Group, we specialize in waterfront high-rise residential sales & property management,” the Facebook page said alongside conceptual renderings of Amara Bay condominiums and photos of McCann at the 2024 groundbreaking ceremony.
Minutes after Voice of San Diego asked a Pacifica Companies representative about the Facebook page on May 15, the page was momentarily locked. A few minutes later, the page was unlocked – but all of the information about Coronado Shores Co. had been removed.
“We cannot wait to see the finished community of Amara Bay!” the page now said. “Coastal living in Chula Vista will never be the same again!”
Neither John nor Myllissa McCann responded to questions about the Facebook page.
Jack Straw, director of planning and entitlement for Pacifica Companies, said his company had not partnered with Coronado Shores Co. or any other real estate company to sell or manage properties at the Amara Bay project.
He said he was unaware of the Facebook page’s existence until Voice of San Diego brought it to his attention.
“The Facebook page is not associated with us,” Straw said. “We have gotten a lot of calls [about buying condominiums at Amara Bay] and we have an interest list we are maintaining…[But] we’re a little far out to pre-buy or do marketing. We’ll do that in the next year or so. We’re wanting to get a little further along.”
“We’ll be the only residential” development in the Bayfront Master Plan area, Straw said. “Adding that component into the bayfront really makes it a unique community and will help to continue spurring growth among the other parcels down there.”
Straw said Pacifica was currently installing utilities and other infrastructure at the project site before commencing work on buildings. The company, he said, would need additional city permits to begin above-ground construction.
McCann’s close involvement in Amara Bay and other bayfront developments is not unusual for a Chula Vista city leader. For more than two decades, mayors and councilmembers, including former Mayor (now-state Sen.) Steve Padilla and former Mayor Mary Salas, have planned, negotiated and participated in key votes to bring about the bayfront redevelopment plan, a top city priority.
What is unusual is the prospective involvement of McCann’s real estate company. McCann takes great care to recuse himself from Council votes involving certain real estate matters because he owns investment properties in the city and works in the real estate business. It is unclear why his real estate company appears to have taken steps to do business in the Amara Bay project.
State law prohibits elected officials from voting on or otherwise influencing city policies that could benefit them financially.
Earlier this year, McCann gave Voice a PowerPoint presentation listing some of the many real estate development projects Chula Vista has approved during his time on the City Council.
The list, McCann said, showed how his real estate and finance background – he earned a master’s degree in economics – have helped him to advance Chula Vista’s interests in development decisions and financial negotiations.
“These are actual real projects that I helped bring,” McCann said. “Families can live here, have a stake in the community and build generational wealth in the city of Chula Vista.”
The real estate list included the Gaylord hotel, several master-planned residential communities in eastern Chula Vista, a tiny home shelter for homeless people near the Otay River, an apartment complex on the site of a former Sears department store and a 179-room hotel.
Also on the list: the Amara Bay project.
“This project is another significant step forward in transforming the bayfront,” McCann’s PowerPoint said of Amara Bay. “The Chula Vista Bayfront Master Plan development is transforming [a] largely vacant and underutilized industrial landscape into a thriving recreational, residential and resort destination on the Chula Vista waterfront.”
