Padres' Pitch for Tailgate Park's Transformation Selected by City

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced Wednesday that the city selected the San Diego Padres' proposal to redevelop a portion of downtown’s East Village into a hotspot for shops and housing near PETCO Park.

The area known as Tailgate Park, which spans over four blocks of space between Imperial Avenue, K Street, 12^th Avenue and 14^th Street, will eventually become a downtown destination.

“This is a grand slam for our community,” Faulconer said in the announcement.

He said the Padres have been a great partner with Petco Park and the city looks forward to partnering with the organization for the development.

The San Diego Padres’ vision of the redevelopment beat Brookfield Properties’ proposal. Both bids included the construction of housing units, open space and retail space.

In more detail, this is what the Padres’ pitch for Tailgate Park would include:

• 612 at-market and affordable housing units
• 1.3 million square feet of space
• 236,000 square feet of open space
• Parking garage

“There’s so much potential from this project from housing of all types, because we need housing of all types in San Diego to additional parking," said Betsy Brennan, President and CEO of Downtown San Diego Partnership.

Confirmed! The project (and the City’s contract with the Padres) must still go through a lengthy review and approval process. If all goes according to plan, they could break ground in early 2023. @nbcsandiego https://t.co/wo96auwE1z pic.twitter.com/IzMycwneN8

— Audra Stafford📺🎬🎭 (@AudraStaffordTV) September 23, 2020

Some community members have raised concerns over the homeless population in the area and leaders in the project acknowledged those worries.

“Addressing homelessness is incredibly important," said Erik Greupner, Padres’ President of Business Operations. "We want to continue to be engaged and supportive in the efforts to improve the situation, but we also need to move forward as a city and revitalize the area around the ballpark and do it in a way that’s both humane and mindful of the people it impacts, and I believe we can do both."

The next steps for the project include taking the selection committee's recommendation for the city to enter into an exclusive negotiation agreement with the Padres for consideration to the City Council's Economic Development and Intergovernmental Relations Committee, and subsequently to the full council.

If all goes according to plan and schedule, groundbreaking for the redevelopment could begin as soon as early 2023.