City officials today initially approved a San Diego Padres-led mixed-use office/residential project dubbed Tailgate Park, located on 5.25 acres of parking lots next to Petco Park.
The Padres and development partners are proposing for the site, which sits between 12th and Imperial avenues, and K and 14th streets, a $1.4-billion, 2-million-square-foot development featuring 1.35 million square feet of office space marketed as a tech and biotech cluster, 612 market-rate and subsidized apartments, 50,000 square feet of retail and 236,000 square feet of open space (as shown in the above rendering). Parking for Padres game and other Petco Park events would also be supported by 1,600 parking space. The Padres have launched their own development arm for this project, Tailgate Development LLC, and are heading the effort. Also part of the development efforts: Tishman Speyer and Ascendant Capital Partners.
The approval from the city doesn’t mean work will take place immediately: it means that the Padres group would begin to seek city approvals for the project and then break ground in 2023, with plenty of steps along the way, such as city council approval. And the specifics of the approval still need to be determined: the city is being forced by the state to divest the Tailgate Park property, which led to the RFP and a competing bid from Brookfield Properties.
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, a proposed Angel Stadium development, the Wrigleyville improvements, and the San Francisco Giants development near Oracle Park being prime examples.
RELATED STORIES: Petco Park Development Pitched by Padres; San Diego Padres to Pitch Tailgate Park Redevelopment