From Voice of San Diego / November 10, 2026
More than eight years ago, the city of San Diego, then led by former Mayor Kevin Faulconer, stopped signing new long-term leases with the businesses that rented land around the Sports Arena. At the same time, it began updating the zoning plan for the neighborhood.
As we wrote then, it looked like the city was finally, truly planning a massive redevelopment for the nearly 50 acres of land it owns in Midway.
Then, we watched one failure after another, as the city pursued what Faulconer and then his successor, Mayor Todd Gloria, envisioned. The courts threw out two ballot measures. Nevertheless, the city persisted and selected a development partner, negotiating an agreement over four years. With another lawsuit looming, the city’s leaders took the extraordinary effort of getting state lawmakers and the governor to give them special protection from lawsuits.
Finally, Monday night, the San Diego City Council approved the $4.2 billion redevelopment project known as Midway Rising.
The revamp on the Pechanga Arena site will include a new 16,000-seat arena. It will be where Dixieline Lumber sits now. Developers believe it will be close enough to the Old Town Transit Center to walk and that the investment they’re making will spur investments all along that walk. And that will make it somewhere you would want to walk.
Then they will build more than 4,000 housing units – roughly 2,000 of those as income-restricted, affordable units – in addition to parks, commercial and retail space.
As part of the project, the City Council approved an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District. It would dedicate a portion of future property tax revenue generated by the development toward reimbursing developers for eligible infrastructure costs.
(The county must also approve this.)
A report by the independent budget analyst estimates the developer will spend roughly $460 million in upfront costs to improve the surrounding infrastructure. This includes road work, sidewalks, lighting, parks, bike lanes and more. The project may be able to recoup some $378 million of those infrastructure costs through the enhanced infrastructure district.
(All those reports are in original.)
The independent budget analyst estimates the city could receive approximately $884 million to $1.23 billion in ticket fees and rental revenues over the century-long duration of the various agreements.
About the affordable housing: The Council also approved the project with additional protections to ensure affordable housing units are “net new.” Last month, we reported how the agreement initially didn’t include that.
That version of the plan would have allowed the development to be a “receiver” site. That would have meant it was allowed to absorb affordable units from other projects — rather than build net-new units. The practice is known as off-siting.
Councilmember Kent Lee brought forward an amendment to ensure Midway Rising builds net-new affordable units.
“I believe that the package that we have before us today combines substantial public benefits with meaningful developer obligations,” said Lee during the Council meeting. “It preserves the city’s ownership of the land. It now includes stronger protections to deliver new affordable housing and to ensure that the city benefits in the act of a refinance.”
Here’s the U-T report:
On Monday, San Diego City Council members took all the actions required to approve the complex Midway Rising transaction following a marathon meeting that extended for more than seven hours.
The city leaders unanimously voted to approve a 105-year lease and redevelopment deal for the 48.5-acre property with master developer Midway Rising, LLC. The council members also approved an array of project land-use documents, including the Midway Rising Specific Plan. In addition, city leaders approved a resolution of intention to form an enhanced infrastructure financing district, meaning the city expects to redirect its share of future tax increment revenue to a yet-to-be-formed special district to subsidize an estimated $462 million of infrastructure work.
The council members also made a few consequential changes to the deal. They added a provision that allows the city to participate in a refinancing event, meaning it will receive 5% to 10% of proceeds above a threshold rate of return should the developer refinance the project, as opposed to only when there is a sale. The developer also agreed to contribute another $2 million toward traffic signal-related costs meant to improve the flow of cars entering the neighborhood from Interstate 5 and Interstate 8.
for the balance go here.
