San Diego Bets Millions On Plan To Turn Skydiving Center Into Center To Help Homeless

The city of San Diego paid $7M in February for the 26K SF former Airborne San Diego indoor skydiving building, and now it plans to reuse the property as a housing navigation center to help people with nowhere to live find places of their own. Critics assert it was a bad deal for the city.

The change from entertainment venue to social service facility could be tricky, considering that much of the space is dominated by two large wind tunnels, and an area around them where spectators were supposed to stand. Locked mechanical rooms take up thousands of square feet.

Critics of the city's purchase say the building is not worth $7M, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. City officials say the purchase was made well under market value.

The deal was done quickly. The city bought the failed entertainment destination out of foreclosure for cash, without an independent appraisal. Escrow closed in a little more than a week.

The skydiving center was developed at 14th Street and Imperial Avenue by San Diego businessman Alan "Buzz" Fink. By last year, the project sank under the weight of design problems, cost overruns and lawsuits.

Fink lost the property to financier David Malcolm, his lender, who then transferred it to an entity owned by a business associate. Various figures for its value then surfaced, from as high as $22M to as low as $5.8M. The county assessed it at the low figure at the time of the sale, and reassessed to $7M shortly afterward.

Real estate broker Sam Patella, who is active in East Village, told the Union-Tribune that the building basically is not worth anything, and without "useful life in its present configuration."

Jonathan Herrera, a senior adviser on homelessness to Mayor Kevin Faulconer, said that the space is "adequate ... on every level.”

Social service providers will need to bid to use the facility. Ultimately, the space might be used by a combination of entities with different specialties.