Last week, U-T writer Lori Weisberg did a lengthy piece about the new “overhaul” for Belmont Park that “could bring new rides and reinvented beachfront restaurant” to the hundred year old amusement park in Mission Beach.
She recounted in glowing terms the new rides, new restaurants and attractions Belmont Park is –or will be getting once Coastal Com’ish authority is obtained.
It’s always been a challenge to lure those “sunbathers and passersby strolling the boardwalk to venture inside.” And every decade or so, owners of the park engage in a new overhaul with new upgrades, rides, bars and eateries.
Why it was just a decade ago — that Weisberg did another glowing report on the “new” Belmont Park back in September 2014 with all its new rides and eateries — see the Rag report here (unfortunately the U-T link appears to have been sold to Belmont Park).
Lori’s current account, only for subscribers, is the just the latest sales job for the park — and heck, it deserves it; even my grand-daughter goes there occasionally.
So, we’ll be seeing changes “in the next couple of years as the park embarks on an ambitious plan to add new thrill rides, reimagine the longstanding Beach House restaurant and update the arcade with an indoor-outdoor bar featuring sweet treats, draft beer and cocktails.”
Weisberg reports :
“… Belmont management is hoping its current plans will become reality starting next year, with the bulk of the redevelopment ready for the public by 2026.”
Sections of the new plans still require approvals from the California Coastal Commission and city of San Diego.
Park General Manager Steve Thomas is quoted:
“We’re redeveloping the northwest corner of the park for a couple reasons: to increase the rides and attractions and two, to increase access to Belmont Park from the beach side. We realized at the park we have a little disconnect between the boardwalk and our rides and attractions, so we want to create a walkway that connects the boardwalk to Belmont in a more direct way, and we also want to add three more rides to attract a different demographic — the 12-year-old to adult range, which we’re missing today.”
Pacifica Enterprises holds the lease for the 7-acre park and has been regularly investing millions of dollars each year to keep the park spruced up while also regularly adding new attractions, according to Weisberg.
Here’s some changes:
- a new tower ride called Shipwreck Cove that mimics the sail of a ship, to be followed later in the year with an accompanying play structure designed to look like the busted hull of a ship.
- a Pizza Port venue replaced Roundtable Pizza.
- Part bar, part arcade —Barcade, as it is currently known (its name will eventually change) converts western end of arcade structure into a 400-square-foot indoor-outdoor bar area;
- Ride upgrades
- Tilt-A-Whirl got new cars that were rebranded as ice cream cones to match the nearby Sweet Shoppe.
- Mic Drop tower ride, formerly known as Vertical Plunge, was replaced but has the same ride design.
- Dip and Dive was replaced and rebranded. It was formerly known as Crazy Submarine.
- Flip Out, formerly known as Control Freak, got replaced just last year.
- Three new thrill rides are planned — need to be approved
- a classic swing carousel;
- another rotates passenger cars on horizontal and vertical axes, flipping riders upside down;
- a third has riders sitting on motorcycle-like pedestal seats while they rock and spin along a track,
Weisberg reports:
Next up is a planned redevelopment of the park’s northwest corner where the longstanding Beach House restaurant and former Wave House now sit. Thomas said the plans call for gutting the all-outdoor Beach House eatery and replacing most of the sandy area where diners sit with decorative diagonal concrete. The design is still a work in progress and nothing has been submitted yet to the Coastal Commission, but Thomas envisions a resort-like theme with a patio overhang, a couple of mini swimming pools, and a deck area for additional dining.
Because the current restaurant tends to block access to the midway and the park’s interior, a pathway would be created that would run through the middle of the restaurant, Thomas said.
Thomas hopes to get the plans for the northwest corner of the park before the Coastal Commission sometime this year. In the meantime, the park is making plans for celebrating next year’s centennial. It will turn 100 on July 4 of next year.
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