By Kevin Wilkerson, San Diego-based blogger
When I first started to come to San Diego – for work and for pleasure – in the 1990s, Horton Plaza was a cool gathering spot for press events, media lunches and just for hanging out in general.
It was a multi-level, hip outdoor mall with shops big and small, restaurants and a happening vibe that put me in a “San Diego is cool” frame on mind located on the edge of the Gaslamp Quarter. I especially enjoyed having the attractive girls at the kiosks spray nice-smelling colgnne on me or call me over to give me a quick and friendly sales pitch of whatever she was selling.
When I moved to San Diego just before the pandemic, I was excited to located practically right next door to it. Now, tho, after several years of disruptive construction that has produced nothing, Horton Plaza is, sadly, a like a boulevard of broken dreams. A planned bio-tech retail space, high-end housing and whatever other high-dollar things the developer could put into the place has turned into what Fox 5 news called in a recent story, “San Diego’s ultimate money pit.”
That’s because the idea never took off and the development company, Stockdale Capital Partners, is on the edge of a foreclosure sale. The pandemic, spiraling costs and – most importantly, from what I can tell – not one business or retailer having signed on for space there – have turned it into a multi-million dollar mulligan, to use a golf term.
Personally, I felt the “biotech” idea was a bad one to begin with, as well as a 400-unit no-doubt very expensive apartment and whatever else was going in there that would be too high-priced for the average Gaslamp resident to go there with any frequency. Why not mix that in with what made Horton Plaza so successful in its heyday: a welcoming open retail space ideal for strolling around it, a couple lively restaurant and/or bars on the top level with views that could see San Diego Bay and those kiosks, which encourage people to stick around a little longer than they would otherwise.
The seemingly endless construction – four years and counting that has fencing. all around it, including blocking a lane of traffic on First Ave., and along G Street behind it – hasn’t won it any favors with locals, tho at least lately crews have taken down some of the fencing along Fourth Ave and along Broadway. The developers also ticked off a lot of people – myself included – when they repainted the historic (100+ years) Balboa Theater all white. It looks terrible. If that was any indication of the type of artistic style the developer has, then the rest of the so-called campus would not be a warming, attractive place to visit.
Part of me wants to say “they are getting what they desserve” yet another part of me is very disappointed. Myself, as well as many other locals, wanted it to succeed, to thrive, to be at least something like it was in the past.
What becomes of it now that it will likely be sold for pennies on the dollar, is undetermined. Here’s one idea: turn it into an “entertainment zone” like Santa Monica is doing to try and resuscitate 3rd Street Promenade, in which people can walk around the area with cocktails. I just wish it would hurry up and happen because I am tired of all that construction and fencing. San Diego’s Horton Plaza is indeed like a boulevard of broken dreams, a place of disillusionment and the search for a purpose after a period of great excitement.
This is an opion piece by San Diego-based blogger Kevin Wilkerson, who is an award-winning journalist. This story was written by him with no assistance from AI or chatgtp.
Leave a Reply