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More than 150 apartments will go up by the 12th & Imperial Transit Center, shown here on Oct. 16, 2025, in San Diego. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nDowntown San Diego\u2019s busiest transit hub\u00a0is about to undergo a dramatic makeover that will include new bus bays, expanded trolley boarding platforms and a six-story apartment building with rent-restricted rents.<\/p>\n
While the project was praised Thursday as something that will make the area east of Petco Park more vibrant and help solve the housing crisis, some local transit officials said they\u2019re frustrated the apartment building won\u2019t be taller.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m concerned about missed opportunities on these scarce public resources \u2014 we\u2019re only going to get to develop this once,\u201d said Chula Vista Councilmember Jose Preciado, who serves on the Metropolitan Transit System board. \u201cI\u2019m just dismayed we\u2019re not looking for partnerships that would take us to 20 stories, because the housing need is extraordinary in our region.\u201d<\/p>\n
MTS officials said they also would have preferred a taller building as part of the 12th & Imperial Transit Center expansion, but that it didn\u2019t make financial sense for a developer to build a subsidized project any larger.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really came down to the financing,\u201d said Karen Landers, MTS general counsel. \u201cThe cost to construct a building of that size and height \u2014 there is not a market or a funding source to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the city and state have loosened zoning rules enough to allow buildings up to 40 stories tall in downtown, construction costs for buildings that tall make it financially infeasible, Landers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes MTS wait 20 years to see if the market changes, or does it build something now?\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to wait 10, 15, 20 years for that to be feasible and have this be vacant. We want a project that can come in now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sharon Cooney, MTS chief executive, stressed that the transit center expansion will free up a second vacant parcel on National Avenue where MTS hopes to build a larger housing development in coming years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe project we\u2019re looking at today does not preclude that larger project in the future,\u201d Cooney said. \u201cThis is not precluding future development that maximizes the air rights or the zoning of this site.\u201d<\/p>\n
County Supervisor Monica Montgomery Steppe, another MTS board member, said she supports this project but would like MTS leaders to explore ideas that aren\u2019t dictated by developers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we look forward, I would ask us to broaden our scope and our creativity and our minds to think above and beyond what the market is dictating to us,\u201d said Montgomery Steppe. \u201cSomebody is walking away with cash at the end of this, and it certainly isn\u2019t MTS.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 150 apartments will go up by the 12th & Imperial Transit Center, shown here on Oct. 16, 2025, in San Diego. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
The housing project, which is being subsidized\u00a0by the San Diego Foundation, will be part of a new housing corridor east of Petco Park that could dramatically change the character of that area.<\/p>\n
The Logan Yards housing development will include 900 units, a project on the site of a former skydiving center will include 164 homes and the Tailgate Park project will include 600 homes and 1.4 million square feet of office and retail space.<\/p>\n
Landers said the six-story project at 12th and Imperial, which will have 161 homes, was difficult to negotiate because of challenges at the site.<\/p>\n
Several utility lines must be relocated, a large storm drain bisects the site diagonally and multiple sections of street must be eliminated on 13th Street, Commercial Street and National Avenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a much more complicated project than everybody thought at the beginning,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s required a lot more work and a lot more thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the San Diego Foundation will likely partner on the project with Cypress Equity Investments, a developer based in Santa Monica that focuses on projects in areas slated for growth.<\/p>\n
The project is slated to include 74 one-bedroom units, 55 two-bedroom units and 32 three-bedroom units. No details on income qualifications or rents have been disclosed.<\/p>\n
Landers said the expansion of the transit center is crucial for MTS because 12th & Imperial is its largest and busiest station and is expected to become even busier with all the new housing planned nearby.<\/p>\n
The $13.6 million expansion will increase the number of bus bays from four to 13, add more shelters and benches, improve the lighting and add new platforms for trolley service.<\/p>\n
All three trolley lines \u2014 blue, green and orange \u2014 stop at the station, which also serves more than a dozen bus routes.<\/p>\n
Most of the project will be paid for with a $10.9 million state grant that MTS was awarded under the Transit Intercity Rail Capital Program.<\/p>\n
Landers said design work is nearly complete on the transit center expansion. MTS will likely solicit construction bids early next year.<\/p>\n
The housing project, which will require federal tax credits, likely won\u2019t break ground until 2027 and likely won\u2019t be complete until 2029, Landers said.<\/p>\n
During Thursday\u2019s meeting, the MTS board also unanimously re-elected board chair Stephen Whitburn and vice-chair Steve Goble to new two-year terms that extend through the end of 2027.<\/p>\n
Whitburn is a San Diego City Council member, and Goble is an El Cajon City Council member.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: October 16, 2025 at 5:20 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Downtown San Diego\u2019s busiest transit hub\u00a0is about to undergo a dramatic makeover that will include new bus bays,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":309499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1370,728,8629,50,80,3549,7264,7289,522,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-309498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-local-news","13":"tag-local-politics","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-san-diego","17":"tag-sandiego","18":"tag-top-stories-sdut","19":"tag-transportation","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115386931339676208","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309498","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=309498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}