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SAN DIEGO BALLPARK NEIGHBORHOOD REVITALIZATION

San Diego, California

In 1998, city of San Diego voters overwhelmingly approved a historic memorandum of understanding for a new Major League ballpark and a major redevelopment effort that has transformed one of the city’s most blighted areas—East Village—into one of downtown’s fastest-growing and most popular neighbor- hoods. “This major redevelopment project has totally transformed the entire character of a formerly trou- bled neighborhood,” states Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC) president Nancy Graham. “Now, roughly 3 million people per year visit this part of downtown San Diego and it has come alive with residential, retail, and commercial development. An exciting and vibrant energy exists on the streets to- day that hadn’t been there before.” The public/private partnership that created this neighborhood offers a model of how public investment can catalyze large-scale private redevelopment efforts. Located just two blocks from the historic Gaslamp Quarter (a popular downtown dining, shopping, and entertainment district) and across the street from the San Diego Convention Center, the East Village had long been viewed as one of San Diego’s most dangerous, dilapidated neighborhoods. Abandoned warehouses and empty lots predominated, and the ground was contaminated from nearly 100 years of industrial uses. Not surprisingly, private developers demonstrated no interest in the area prior to the con- struction of PETCO Park, the new stadium for the San Diego Padres baseball team.

Development Team Bosa Development Douglas Wilson Companies Redevelopment Agency of the City San Diego, California San Diego, California of San Diego Developers www.bosadev.com www.douglaswilson.com San Diego, California San Diego Padres Cisterra Partners LLC www.sandiego.gov/redevelopment- San Diego, California Public Partners San Diego, California agency www.sandiego.padres.mlb.com www.cisterra.com Centre City Development Corporation City of San Diego JMI Realty Inc. San Diego, California San Diego, California San Diego, California www.ccdc.com www.sandiego.gov www.jmirealty.com

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Project Data Website www.ccdc.com

Site Area 82 acres (33 ha)

Facilities (As of mid-2007)

27,000 sf (2,508 m2) office The Padres worked cooperatively with the city of San Diego and CCDC—a public, nonprofit entity 170,000 sf (15,794 m2) retail created by the city to facilitate downtown redevelopment—to create a ballpark district that would best 2,453 multifamily units leverage the public investment in PETCO Park to attract additional private development. The Padres added 747 hotel rooms $153 million to a $300 million public investment in PETCO Park and also agreed to support a well- planned mix of development around the ballpark that has generated more than $300 million in new as- 2,600+ structured and surface parking spaces sessed value. Hundreds of community meetings were held to ensure public involvement in the design of the ball- 42,445-seat Major League ballpark park and the adjacent Park-at-the-Park public park as well as to keep community members engaged in Land Uses development plans for the blocks surrounding the ballpark. A significant environmental cleanup of the stadium, restaurant, residential, area was conducted, which required substantial cooperation among a variety of public agencies. The ball- retail, office, hotel, civic (library), park project weathered 17 lawsuits and two years of delays. parking, parks/open space The ballpark project involved the preservation of numerous historic structures, including the West- Start/Completion Dates ern Metal Supply Company building, one corner of which serves as the left-field foul pole—making it the most recognizable symbol of PETCO Park. The Western Metal building now contains a restaurant, a mu- January 2000-–ongoing seum, and the team store. The ballpark also features the nearly three-acre (1.2 ha) Park-at-the-Park, which Jury Statement serves both as a public gathering place and playground and as a venue from which fans can pay as little The revitalization of San Diego’s East as $5 to watch a baseball game while seated on the grass. A revitalized trolley line runs through the neigh- Village is much bigger than develop- borhood. ment and redevelopment occurring Most private developers waited to proceed with residential and commercial projects on surrounding around a new Major League ballpark. blocks until they were sure that the ballpark would indeed be built. Only three years after the April 2004 It is a strategic initiative to leverage opening of PETCO Park, an estimated $4.3 billion in residential, commercial, and public development— the ballpark investment to redevelop, 2 rehabilitate, and reintegrate into including 8,300 residential units, 1,100 hotel rooms, 1.2 million square feet (111,484 m ) of commercial downtown a disinvested, industrial space, and more than 3,600 parking spaces—is either planned, underway, or completed within the nearly area of the city. As a result, the 60- 60-block ballpark neighborhood area. Thousands of new residents have moved into the neighborhood, block area is transforming into a two new hotels have opened, several public parking structures have been built, and retailers and restau- vibrant, mixed-use community. rateurs are arriving. The momentum fueled by the development of the ballpark is remaking East Village, which is transforming into a vibrant mixed-use, mixed-income community. The substantial risk taken by the public sector in this redevelopment effort has proven incredibly successful, and the private sector is now driving billions of dollars worth of continuing investment. This public/private initiative has be- come a true model of smart growth and neighborhood revitalization.

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