Petco Park
A Look at the Petco Park Battle, Part I
This is the first post in a series that will take a look around the country to see what development efforts have taken place in other cities with new ballparks. I’ll do my best to find out what exactly was done in each instance and how things are working out in each of these cities today.
Petco Park and its Surroundings
The first stadium I want to examine is Petco Park, the still-relatively-new home of the San Diego Padres. In this particular instance, the main difference with the current situation in Queens is that the Padres needed a new stadium as well as a new location. Unlike the Mets, they did not build the new park on land they already occupied.
Some of the early history of Petco Park and the redevelopment of the East Village neighborhood of San Diego can be found at signonsandiego.com. I’ll denote in boldface some of the similarities to Willets Point.
City of San Diego officials entertained a Padres overture to be a partner [in building the new stadium]. The clincher was the opportunity for a ballpark to serve as a catalyst for downtown redevelopment.
Although it was not his first choice, Moores agreed to a site along L Street in the blighted East Village, a historic warehouse and industrial district…
That November, nearly 60 percent of San Diego voters approved Proposition C, giving the city and the Padres permission to redevelop 26 blocks in the East Village with hotels, apartments, condominiums, retail space and offices, with a ballpark at the center.
Sounds pretty similar so far. I’ll continue a series about Petco Park, its surroundings, and the before and after effects of the development that went hand-in-hand with the construction of the new baseball stadium.
Welcome to Develop Willets Point
