San Diego Padres Partner With Tishman Speyer, Cisterra On Bid For 5-Acre Tailgate Park

The owners of the San Diego Padres are teaming up with Tishman Speyer, Cisterra Development and Ascendant Capital Partners on a bid to develop a 5-acre parcel of land located southeast of the Petco Park ballpark, the team announced Thursday.

Padres Next Fifty, the Padres' real estate investment arm, will lead the charge to try to redevelop the property, called Tailgate Park, currently a 1,000-space surface parking for the Major League Baseball team's stadium.

The team's plan calls for the development of a 2M SF mixed-use tech campus with a tech office campus, retail and market-rate and affordable housing, the San Diego Union Tribune reports. The area will feature a public plaza, gathering space and parking for the ballpark, the team said.

The team did not disclose the estimated cost of the project but it could exceed more than $1B, according to the Tribune.

“It was always envisioned that the ballpark would serve as the catalyst for downtown’s redevelopment, and Tailgate Park would be transformed from a surface parking lot into a vibrant mixed-use development," Padres Next Fifty President and CEO Erik Greupner said in a news release.

The formation of the Padres development team and plan to acquire the site comes a couple of months after the city of San Diego, which owns the lot, started the process of rezoning the 5.25-acre, four-block site, according to city records. The site sits a few blocks southeast from Petco Park, where the Padres play their home games.

Tailgate Park is used for the stadium and a nearby convention center, and also hosts events occasionally. The Padres have a long-term lease with the city to use the land as parking that expires in 2043, though the terms of the lease stipulate that the city can redevelop the site.

Last year, the city began marketing the property for sale and solicited development proposals. The city has dubbed the area as the East Village Quarter. The city will create a short list of qualified candidates to redevelop the site, according to the Tribune. Once that is formalized, the bidders will submit formal proposals, with the city council expected to choose the winning bidder later this year, the Tribune reports.

If selected, the Padres development team said they intend to create a plan "that is complementary to the Ballpark District and includes dynamic high-density uses." Carrier Johnson + Culture have been named as one of the proposed project's architects.