San Diego’s largest downtown neighborhood, East Village, was once full of warehouses falling into disrepair. Major development and redevelopment projects immediately to the south and east got underway in the 1980s, most notably Horton Plaza Mall and the San Diego Convention Center, setting the stage for revitalization.
“About 30 years ago, civic leaders from the public and private sectors came together to build a new ballpark in East Village,” says Gary London, senior principal at London Moeder Advisors of San Diego. Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres, opened at East Village’s southeast corner in 2004, kick-starting a construction boom of residential, office, retail, dining, and entertainment projects in the vicinity.
Attendees of ULI’s 2022 Spring Meeting will have the opportunity to tour the ballpark and nearby developments that are recently completed, under construction, or in the works. “The ballpark district is an example of the private sector and the public sector coming together and creating a transformational anchor that has informed the redevelopment of the last and largest remaining undeveloped portion of downtown San Diego,” says London. “And there are still a lot of old buildings and empty lots.”
The tour will start at Petco Park, then head to Tailgate Park, a parking lot two blocks east, long leased by the Padres for fans’ tailgate parties. The Padres are in the final stages of negotiating with the municipality to develop the site in a joint venture with Tishman Speyer and Ascendant Capital, adding more than a million square feet (93,000 sq m) of office space, over 600 market-rate and affordable apartments, and retail.
Two blocks north of Tailgate Park, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), is completing construction on the UC San Diego Downtown Center, which will include a variety of public, meeting, arts, and academic spaces. “It’s a significant investment on the part of UCSD in the downtown, and it’s part of a residential high-rise project,” says London. “The trolley goes right past, so students can travel to UCSD’s main campus in La Jolla in a reasonable period of time, very cheaply.”
The tour will then head west to an office high-rise across the street from the ballpark, DiamondView Tower, which has an events venue overlooking right field. Next up is the Gaslamp Quarter, a highly popular 16.5-block historic district that began redevelopment in the 1980s, with many older buildings adapted to accommodate restaurants, entertainment venues, nightclubs, and shops.
Petco Park itself incorporates a renovated historic former warehouse, the Western Metal Supply Building, which dates to 1909 and stands at the left field foul pole. It houses the Padres’ team store, private suites, a restaurant and bar, and rooftop seating. “It will give us a birds-eye view of the ballpark and the rest of the district,” says London.
Petco Park’s owes its success as a catalyst for development to its location, London says. “It’s next to the convention center, the Gaslamp Quarter, major hotels built to support the convention center, and residential towers. And it’s a great ballpark. It’s a classic example of how a lot of hard work, by elected officials, private developers, and the owners of the baseball team, can get a big project like this approved and built. Impossible projects can get done.”
Learn more about tours and other programs at the 2022 ULI Spring Meeting.
RON NYREN is a freelance architecture and urban design writer based in the San Francisco Bay area.
