Heralded as San Diego’s next civic treasure, the $18 million expansion of the historic plaza at Fourth Avenue and Broadway opened in May of 2016 with promises of creating an urban gathering space on par with New York’s Bryant Park. Instead, Horton Plaza Park quickly morphed into a homeless hangout and a hot spot for criminal activity.
Today, that park is dead — closed since March 2020, with developer Stockdale Capital Partners using the site as a staging area while it works to complete the conversion of the connected Horton Plaza mall into an office campus.
But a long-promised revival of the public recreation space appears to be on the horizon.
On Tuesday, San Diego City Council voted unanimously to lease Horton Plaza Park to Stockdale for 25 years. Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe was absent.
“This project provides much needed improvements to Horton Plaza Park,” said Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, who represents the downtown area. “The creation of new outdoor space, a dining deck, new food establishments (and) artwork will reclaim this open space that has been inaccessible and fenced off for some time now.”
In the works for 3.5 years, the lease is not intended to be a moneymaker. The city only stands to make an estimated $4 million from rent payments over the course of the 25-year term. Rather, the contractual arrangement is structured, city officials say, to ensure that the mistakes of the past aren’t repeated, and that the city-owned site becomes the civic gem it was intended to be.
“The primary goal is to have (Horton Plaza Park) be a central hub of activity in the (heart) of downtown,” Christina Bibler, the city’s director of economic development who negotiated the lease, told the Union-Tribune and reiterated at the council meeting.
“(Horton Plaza Park) was always planned to be a community gathering space and that has not changed. What has developed is a better understanding of how s and citizens want to interact with the park and the opportunities it may provide. (It currently) is a very hardscaped environment without shade or connection to the adjacent building. The design was well-intended, however, it missed the mark on what retail restaurants needed to be successful and what the public desires to ensure a sense of place,” Bibler told council . “The goal and incentive for this specific site is to continue to reinvest and operate the park with full activation and not monetary priority.”
The lease could resuscitate a vision that dates to January 2011, when a city agency entered into a deal to take over the 37,000 square-foot property at 900 Fourth Avenue. At the time, Westfield, the operator of the now-defunct mall, agreed to sell its Robinsons-May parcel to the city’s former redevelopment agency and promised, as cemented in the 2011 Owner Participation Agreement, to maintain the future park.
The department store building was demolished in 2012 and the city debuted its new Horton Plaza Park in May 2016, with a budget that had ballooned to $18 million in redevelopment funds over the years. The park opened with three food-and-beverage kiosks (two with tenants), a sunken outdoor amphitheater, an interactive water feature and public restrooms. The project also restored the historic grassy plaza and fountain area along Broadway opposite the U.S. Grant Hotel, which downtown founder Alonzo Horton set aside around 1870.
Under the new lease agreement, Stockdale will rehabilitate and maintain the 37,000 square-foot urban park space, as well as operate it as a public attraction.
The Los Angeles-based firm must spend a minimum of $5 million on improvements during the redevelopment period. Contractually, the developer has 24 months after the lease is executed to finish renovations, which suggests an open date no later than January 2025.
The developer is entitled to a 17-year lease extension if it invests another $4 million in upgrades to the park facility during the initial term. Stockdale also has the option to extend the lease for two, 10-year , if it is not default of the agreement.
The contract limits the number of for-charge events to a maximum of 25 percent of events per year. It expressly prohibits the developer from subleasing space to dollar stores, pawn shops, marijuana outfits and adult businesses. And it stipulates that the firm work to achieve the city’s “activation goals,” which include scheduling nonprofit or regional events at little to no cost, programming activities for families and promoting the property’s connection to nearby theaters, although there are no specific requirements.
“It was less about quantity and more about quality,” Bibler told the Union-Tribune. “The city specifically negotiated to ensure that we understood what they were planning to do and what they had in their pipeline, as baked into the lease, in an annual work plan. They also have an expectation of regular activation to detour otherwise unwanted activity.”
Stockdale is obligated to keep the existing public bathroom at the southeast corner of the site open during park hours. The park will be open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Thursday and Sunday; and 9 a.m. to 10 p.m on Friday and Saturday, according to the schedule outlined in the lease agreement.
The restroom requirement was a non-negotiable for Mayor Todd Gloria, Bibler said, and was one of the reasons the lease took so long to finalize.
However, John Brady, who is the director of Lived Experience Advisers, took issue with the city’s decision to outsource operations of the public bathroom to a private entity.
“This is the only public restroom that is near the entire bar district of downtown and it should be open 24/7,” Brady said during the public comment period of the meeting.
Rent, which is not due until the renovated park opens, is set at 50 percent of annual net revenue, after expenses such as repair work, utility fees, janitorial services, insurance, landscaping and security costs are subtracted from gross receipts. The expenses are expected to be substantial.
“There is extensive cost to remediate and attend to issues relating to security, illegal activity. daytime and evening lounging and public health hazards,” Bibler told council . “Security was estimated … back in 2019 at $540,000 annually for two security guards, which we knew would increase over time.”
The developer will also receive credit for its capital investments, meaning the city likely won’t collect its first payment until 2035, according to an evaluation of the lease prepared by real estate consultant Keyser Marston Associates.
In addition, Stockdale is required to maintain, through 2041, the historic grassy plaza and fountain, although the footprint is not included in its leasehold.
The lease agreement marks an important milestone for the developer — particularly as it works to secure tenants for its bigger project, The Campus at Horton. In August 2018, Stockdale purchased the Horton Plaza retail center for $175 million. The following year, City Council OK’d the conversion of the mall into a mixed-use campus with 772,000 square feet of office space and 300,000 square feet of retail. Construction is ongoing.
“We’re investing just south of a billion dollars right next door, and we have more incentive than anybody that I can think of, including the city of San Diego, to make that park work and make it work as soon as possible,” Jimmy Parker, a San Diego-based executive with the developer, told the Union-Tribune. “We have skin in the game.”
Stockdale views the park as the front door of its campus and expects to spend around $9 million to revive it — with improvements meant to counteract the harshness of the current mostly concrete environment.
The park’s new design is modeled, in part, after Little Italy’s Piazza della Famiglia and Seattle’s Pioneer Square. There will be trees and umbrellas for much-needed shade, a wrap-around dining deck that doubles as a stage and complements a future food hall inside the attached developer-owned Bradley Building, and a large green lawn where people can participate in outdoor yoga classes. There will also be gates to physically close the park after hours.
Many of the park’s structural elements will remain in place. The kiosks are being remodeled with bigger kitchens and more space to accommodate sit-down restaurants, a portion of the outdoor amphitheater’s concrete steps will be converted into wood seating, and the bathroom will renovated
Altogether, the upgrades should make Horton Plaza Park feel like a completely different space, one where people are invited to hangout as opposed to feeling pushed out, Parker said.
“We are looking to open the campus next year. We would love to have the park follow as soon as possible,” he said.
