The San Diego Padres are pitching a mixed-use office/residential project in the 5.25-acre area of parking lots known as Tailgate Park next to Petco Park, while bringing in some heavy hitters in the development world.
The Padres already hold a lease with the city for the property through 2042, and while it doesn’t necessarily give the team and its new development arm, Padres Next Fifty, an advantage in the development property, it does position the team ownership well if negotiations do ensue. The property is controlled by the city, and its development potential was outlined in a recent RFP, with planning launching in 2019.
The Padres and development partners are proposing for the site, which sits between 12th and Imperial avenues, and K and 14th streets, a billion-dollar, 2-million-square-foot development anchored by a tech campus and surrounded by housing and retail, and presumably other support features like restaurants and services space. Parking for Padres game and other Petco Park events would also be part of the development.
As noted, the Padres have launched their own development arm and are heading the effort. Also part of the development efforts so far: Tishman Speyer, Cisterra Development (whose DiamondView Tower was part of original development springing from the construction of Petco Park) and Ascendant Capital Partners. Local architecture firm Carrier Johnson + Culture is on board as well. From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
The city, which has marketed the asset as “East Village Quarter” to international buyers, has said that it wants to maximize its financial return on the land. It’s entertaining bids that incorporate office, hotel, retail, residential and entertainment space.
“The city is currently reviewing the submittals,” said Christina Chadwick, a city spokeswoman. “Once a short list of qualified development teams is established, the city will disclose the number of responses and the short-listed teams.”
Although still conceptual, the Padres and team partners view their live-work-play vision as the best way to round out East Village, a neighborhood that already owes much of its newfound character and many of its high-rises to the baseball club’s presence.
We’re seeing a slew of ballpark-related development coming down the pike near MLB ballparks, as Petco Park has generated roughly $4.25 billion in associated urban development since opening, per a Stanford University Graduate School of Business study. Atlanta’s Truist Park and the adjacent The Battery Atlanta is one prominent example of development being tied to a new ballpark, but this has also played out with teams seeking to redevelop nearby land well after their facilities have opened, with the Colorado Rockies’ ongoing redevelopment of a former surface parking lot west of Coors Field and the San Francisco Giants development near Oracle Park being prime examples.
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