{"id":156842,"date":"2025-08-18T22:35:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T22:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/156842\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T22:35:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T22:35:14","slug":"what-to-know-about-the-multibillion-dollar-midway-rising-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/156842\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Know About the Multibillion-Dollar Midway Rising Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the filmmaker Cameron Crowe needed a stadium to look like it was from the 1970s for his 2000 movie Almost Famous, he turned to his hometown. He filmed the scene in which protagonist William Miller meets the rock band Stillwater for the first time at Sports Arena Stadium (now called Pechanga Arena<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Twenty-five years after the release of Almost Famous, the 1966 stadium still looks much the same\u2014but maybe not for long. Now the site is slated for a massive revamp dubbed \u201cMidway Rising<\/a>.\u201d The plan is to replace the original Pechanga Arena (which currently seats about 14,000) with a new 16,000-seat stadium, along with 2,000 affordable apartments, 2,250 market-rate apartments, 130,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, and 14.5 acres of parks and public space.<\/p>\n

\"ElvisCourtesy of Pechanga Arena<\/p>\n

The team behind the project includes Chelsea Investment Corporation, sports venue developer Legends, and market-rate housing developer Zephyr. It\u2019s funded by real estate investment firm The Kroenke Group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s the opportunity to bring a world-class, modernized entertainment center to the city,\u201d says Zephyr CEO Brad Termini. \u201cHaving a new arena at the Midway has been a goal of the city for as long as I\u2019ve lived here, and it feels like we\u2019re really close to delivering that vision, a facility that could attract the globe\u2019s best talent<\/a> and shows for San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n

The redevelopment began in September 2022<\/a>, when the San Diego City Council formally selected the Midway Rising team to take on the project. This spring, the draft environmental impact report <\/a>(EIR) for the project was released, and the team is holding a series of meetings to collect community feedback. The goal is for it to go to the City Council this fall for approval.<\/p>\n

\"RenderingRendering Courtesy of Safdie Rbaines Architects<\/p>\n

The Kroenke Group are the majority funders of the project, but Termini says they aren\u2019t ready to state publicly how much it will cost. \u201cIt\u2019s evolving. With the crazy construction markets we find ourselves in today, it\u2019s very difficult to peg that, so we\u2019re not releasing any public budget numbers at this time,\u201d he adds. <\/p>\n

However, those figures have the potential to be massive. According to the City of San Diego, the project\u2019s affordable housing developer, Chelsea Investment Corporation, led 65 projects in San Diego County<\/a> and more than 120 throughout Southern California at a total cost of over $3 billion. Meanwhile, Zephyr has headed more than $1 billion in mixed-use developments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whatever the final investment, Pechanga Arena will be completely transformed. Termini tells us that the current iteration is too old and outdated to attract big-name concerts. Its loading dock, lighting, and sound aren\u2019t up to current standards. <\/p>\n

\"HistoricalCourtesy of Pechanga Arena<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like a dive bar\u2014when the lights are low and it\u2019s full, it can still be a fun place,\u201d he says. \u201cBut when the lights go up, you really see what\u2019s there. It\u2019s really lacking.\u201d<\/p>\n

That rings true for local sports fan Zack Tembi, who regularly attends San Diego Seals<\/a> lacrosse games at the old stadium. \u201cIt\u2019s just stale,\u201d he says. \u201cSan Diego isn\u2019t known for being a sports city<\/a>, right? So, if we have something that can attract good events and talent, I\u2019m all about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ideally, Tembi adds, the vision would expand beyond the stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they should make more of a community center, like what you see with most of the modern stadiums,\u201d he continues. \u201cThings that are accessible<\/a> around the stadium\u2014whether it\u2019s parks or shops or restaurants\u2014that bring people in even when there\u2019s no event. I\u2019d also love to see things around the stadium that you can go to without needing a ticket. Stuff that\u2019s fun, like a restaurant with golf simulators or interactive experiences. Just more ways people in the community can use the space all the time, not just when there\u2019s a concert or a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DollyCourtesy of Pechanga Arena<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s no promise of golf simulators just yet, developers do intend to include lots of retail and restaurant space, along with public parks. Termini says his team predicts it will have a massive economic impact\u2014perhaps equivalent to the three largest events the San Diego Convention Center hosts every year, including Comic-Con<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Christina Bibler, director of economic development for the City of San Diego, is excited about the project\u2019s potential effects. \u201cJust the sheer magnitude and size of a 48-acre parcel that is going to [have a ton of housing units and create many] jobs\u2014it will be legacy-leaving for Midway,\u201d she says. \u201c[We\u2019re looking at] more amenities, increased revenue, and the revitalization of a site that hasn\u2019t really been revitalized since the mid-1960s.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project is a major priority for her team, she explains, because of the affordable housing<\/a> it will bring and because it will help make better use of the land owned by the city. \u201cIts [value depreciates] when you don\u2019t reinvest,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is about revitalizing and catalyzing the Midway area in a way that will have a lasting impact for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RenderingRendering Courtesy of Safdie Rbaines Architects<\/p>\n

But the surrounding community has concerns. The biggest one for the Peninsula Community Planning Board<\/a>, which advises the city on developments in that area, is the traffic a bigger stadium will bring.<\/p>\n

\u201cRosecrans Street is already congested, and this project doesn\u2019t fully mitigate that,\u201d says Javier Saunders, head of the group\u2019s long-range planning committee. \u201cWe just feel we\u2019re going to be saddled with additional traffic that\u2019s not going to be addressed properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Saunders, the project\u2019s current suggested traffic alleviation techniques are laughable. \u201cWhat they\u2019re proposing is a shuttle bus\u2014one shuttle bus,\u201d he notes. \u201cAnd then they\u2019re giving their employees public transit passes for the entertainment center as mitigation. I think it\u2019s a slap in the face to the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HistoricalCourtesy of Pechanga Arena<\/p>\n

Saunders says his group would like to see more\u2014particularly a street extension on Greenwood Street and a pedestrian and bike overcrossing at Camino del Rio West\u2014to help manage traffic. The Greenwood Street extension was in the community plan, he says, but it was removed to make more room for development.<\/p>\n

The influx of new residences in the area may also increase traffic, but developers are exempt from having to explain how they intend to mitigate those concerns in the impact report because they plan to include affordable housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next step is to go to the City Council <\/a>and present our issues,\u201d he adds. \u201cThe council can say the benefits outweigh the impacts and approve it as is, or it can say, \u2018We\u2019re not going to approve this now. We want you to go back and address some issues.\u2019 [The latter is] what we\u2019re hoping for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Rendering Courtesy of Safdie Rbaines Architects<\/p>\n

Others in the community bring apprehensions, too, including Clifford Weiler, an attorney who filed a letter in response to the project\u2019s environmental impact report. He says the ground in the area is sinking. In 50 years, he believes, people will move into Midway apartments \u201cand [be unable to] shut their doors. The foundations [will be] cracked or the water pipes [will be] cracked. Even though I\u2019m going to be dead\u2014and you can print that\u2014I want it to be done right so nobody gets stuck with a catastrophe that might happen and the expense of trying to correct it decades from now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Royle, the environmental review committee chair for the San Diego County Archaeological Society<\/a>, also feels the project has not done enough to check for and protect potential archaeological relics, including Native American artifacts, where construction will happen. \u201cThe bottom line is that there would have been an expectation for archaeological monitoring for the excavations in the area of the site. And [the developers] don\u2019t even call for monitoring,\u201d he says. \u201cI was surprised, given that they basically acknowledged in the EIR that they don\u2019t know what\u2019s there\u2014because no prior evaluation has been conducted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Courtesy of Wikipedia<\/p>\n

Zephyr CEO Termini, however, argues that those worries will be addressed in time. \u201cBefore we can build anything, there\u2019s a tremendous amount of onsite and off-site infrastructure we need to invest in,\u201d he adds. \u201cThat infrastructure won\u2019t just benefit the project\u2014it will benefit the entire Midway community, with traffic improvements, bike lanes, public spaces, and more.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Plus, he says, the project will be the largest affordable housing project in the history of California, \u201cand those units will be intermixed with market-rate, luxury units, all in a walkable, environmentally friendly community. We plan on delivering housing for all\u2014San Diegans from all walks of life and income levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

The success of that goal remains to be seen. After all, the Midway Rising team is still holding public meetings with the goal of getting full approval by the City Council. According to Termini, the soonest we\u2019ll see them break ground is the end of 2026\u2014so Almost Famous fans have a little more time to check out the set where it all began.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the filmmaker Cameron Crowe needed a stadium to look like it was from the 1970s for his…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":156843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[1444,5229,1582,276,18473,3553,37443,91267,87847,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-156842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-1444","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-everything-sd","13":"tag-feature","14":"tag-living-design","15":"tag-midway-district","16":"tag-point-loma","17":"tag-san-diego","18":"tag-sandiego","19":"tag-united-states","20":"tag-united-states-of-america","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115052159070017667","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}