ESCONDIDO ----- While construction is well under way for two projects at the Escondido Research and Technology Center , the list of additional businesses committed to moving into the park remains empty, according to the real estate agent handling recruitment for the project.

Escondido officials, however, said Tuesday they are confident that the right tenants are bound to come knocking, if not today, then soon.

"I think it's very viable," said Jo Ann Case, the city's economic development manager. "The land is so scarce for business parks in strategic locales that I really think it's just a matter of time before we do attract the businesses we intended to."

Grading on the 186-acre business park began early last year, as did efforts to bring biotechnology or other hi-tech jobs to the site.

And for nearly six months, massive cranes have loomed over the landscape of the center, assembling Sempra Energy's 546-megawatt power plant. Art Larson, a spokesman for Sempra, said Tuesday that, despite heavy rains this winter, the 20-acre facility is about 40 percent complete and still on schedule to be up and running in the summer of 2006.

Likewise, Stone Brewing Co., the San Marcos-based beer company, plans to complete construction of its new 9,500-square-foot restaurant and brewery in the center this year.

Palomar Pomerado Health has purchased 6.6 acres at the front of a 50-acre lot as a way to lock up the parcel for a new $531 million hospital.

That project remains controversial, with city officials trying to persuade the hospital district to build its new facility closer to downtown and keep the business park available for tech companies.

But beyond the energy plant, the brewery and possibly the hospital district, no new tenants have signed on for the park, located southwest of the Interstate 15 and Highway 78 interchange.

Mike Erwin, the broker handling tenant recruitment for the center's owner, JRMC Real Estate, said Tuesday that despite ongoing efforts to bring in new tenants, none have committed to moving into the park.

Erwin said he has been busy trying to lure businesses located in La Jolla and other local hotbeds of the biotech and hi-tech industries to inland North County , but that they have been reluctant so far to relocate or expand their operations into the city.

"There hasn't been anyone who wants to land yet in Escondido ," Erwin said. "But that is the market we're going after."

Planned as a way to attract some 4,000 high-paying jobs to the city, the business park has zoning requirements that restrict what types of businesses can set up shop. Those requirements exclude warehouses and other types of operations that use substantial space, but do not rely on many employees.

Case said ensuring the right tenants come to the business park is integral to the council's efforts to raise Escondido 's median income of $47,000, which lags behind nearly every other North County city.

"We have a substantial core of construction and service-providing businesses," Case said. "What we need to build on is our technology base in order to have a more diverse (business community)."

And if that means waiting, then wait the city must, said Councilman Sam Abed, who has been a staunch proponent of reserving the research and technology center for better-paying professions.

Abed pointed to other projects that were planned to bring a boost to the local economy, but lingered for years while the city waited for the proper tenants. Those projects included redeveloping the blighted Montgomery Wards site on Escondido Boulevard that now houses the Signature Pavilion.

"Even if we don't have interest today, we're going to hang on to our vision," Abed said of the technology center. "We hung on to our vision ....with the Signature Theatres and got what we wanted."

A majority of City Council members have stated their opposition to Palomar Pomerado Health building a hospital in the park, and the city has offered its own alternative ----- 16.7 acres of city-owned property at the corner of Washington Avenue and Spruce Street . That land would be combined with surrounding properties that would have to be condemned, either by the city or the hospital district.

Making Palomar Pomerado's plans even more contentious is the fact that the council has final say over whether to approve the zoning permits the hospital would need to operate on the site.

Hospital officials have said they oppose the city's plan, and believe that, if they moved into the center, their facility could serve as a magnet to the very biotech businesses the city is trying attract to the park.

Abed, meanwhile, said he sees the hospital's plans as a barrier to attracting more tenants to the business park, and that he intends to vote against allowing zoning permits for the health facility.

Gary Knight , president of the San Diego North Economic Development Council, said that, whether or not the hospital moves in, the business park can expect to start signing up new tenants soon.

Local companies will inevitably be looking to expand, he said, and all it takes is one anchor company moving in to attract smaller, similar businesses.

"It may not be tomorrow," Knight said of finding a tenant. "But it will definitely be next week, in relative terms, that is."

Contact staff writer David Fried at (760) 740-5416 or dfried@nctimes.com .