Temptation Resort - A Short History of Significant Projects downtown San Diego Development,

So it made sense for us to start our interesting decision series with a local issue, as many of you may have already noted we're a San Diego based company.

Some general background, to start.

San Diego is one of the top 5 convention destinations in the USA and although convention center expansion is seemingly always talked about it may be likely to start again at the end of the economic slump(more on this later) Downtown is also a very popular hotel/vacation destinaton for both leisure travel as well as conventions. 000 expected to be located there by 2025, 000 jobs are located downtown with another 100, additionally 175. 000 expected residents by 2025, 000 people currently live downtown with 90, approximately 30. Things are much different now although no one is going to mistake downtown San Diego for New York or San Francisco. Once quipped that if you shot a laster down Broadway(the main East-West road downtown) at 5pm you wouldn't hit anyone who wasn't staggering, while he was mayor, pete Wilson. Frankly unsafe and a general eye sore, at that time the area was. Downtown San Diego has undergone a major redevelopment effort which started in the mid 1980's.

In the past 25+ years Downtown San Diego has seen at least 5 major projects approved and built:

It has become a central park of both downtown and cultural San Diego: none the less, Which you can see below, italy with canals and no logical way to get from one side of the mall to the other, it's intentionally frustrating for tourists(no that isn't a typo) as it is modeled after Venice. Most famous for it's architecture and setup, a multilevel shopping mall. Opening in 1985, horton Plaza: Ground breaking took place in 1981.

Gaslamp Quarter

000 hotel rooms in downtown San Diego, part of the charm of the Gaslamp Quarter is that it is entirely walkable from start to finish and is in close proximity to public transportation as well as the 10. The area now contains more the 100 restaurants and nightclubs and is probably the most centralized nightlife district in California. ) which is Victorian architecture from the late 1880's mostly. A 16.5 block historical neighborhood(at least for Southern California!

000 in the planning stages, 000 hotel rooms with another 4, located directly on the water at the base of the Gaslamp District the convention center is located within 1 mile of 10. San Diego would like to take advantage of it's reputation as a family friendly destination. Recently city governement has thought that they may be able to gain a larger share of the convention business due to some of the backlash against Las Vegas by politicians in Washington. Although the square footage is still not large enough to handle the 5 biggest conventions in America, in 2001 an expansion was completed which doubled the size of the center. In typical San Diego fashion construction did not start until 1987 with completion in 1989, san Diego Convention Center: Voters approved a bond measure in 1983.

Seaport Village

It is located within a half mile of the cruise ship terminal which has caused a dramatic uptick in business recently. It is a popular spotting point for tourists and locals for its unique shops and environment. Landscaping and views of the bay, ponds, seaport is a car free environment with walking paths through single story buildings. 000 sq feet complex is built on landfill gained when the military dredged San Diego Bay to allow larger aircraft carriers to port across the Bay at Naval Air Station Coronado, locals always laugh at the idea of ground breaking for seaport village because the majority of the 90. "Ground Breaking" in 1978 with completion in 1980.

Petco Park

San Diego voters approved Prop C in 1998 which gave public funds to the project. The CCDC and the Port of San Diego, the city of San Diego, financing of the $450M stadium and park at the park was a complicated venture with money coming from the team. However one general concept is very clear: Petco is one of the very few sports stadium projects funded in part with public money to be a GOOD investment for the citizens in financial terms, more then a few books could be written about how Petco Park was eventually built and the costs associated with it.

Concerts etc, at this writing over $2B has been spent and after paying the bonds on the project the city of San Diego estimates they earn approximately 10M per year with larger revenues expected once development is completed and as the team can bring more out of season events to the park like rugby tournaments, originally the city expected to receive $500M-$1B in private capital for new development directly bordering the park. The park is the center of a downtown redevelopment zone.

A restaurant/bar and rooftop suites, suites, it houses the Padres team store. It now forms the left field foul line of Petco Park after the city moved it approximately 1 block instead of destroying it. Pictured is the Western Metal Supply Company Building which was built in 1909.