Midway Rises: City Council Votes Unanimously for $4.2 Billion Redevelopment Project
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.

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