San Diego's Seaport Village To Get Major Overhaul

In the 1980s, two San Diego retail developments helped draw shoppers downtown and cement the city's reputation for innovative planning. Those popular developments were Horton Plaza, an outdoor downtown shopping mall, and Seaport Village, a touristy restaurant and shopping destination built on San Diego Bay on waterfront land once used for shipping. But San Diego is being swept by the same retail trends as the rest of the U.S., and now both projects are being redeveloped. Horton Plaza's owners recently announced plans to convert the lagging shopping center into offices suitable for tech, while Seaport Village is slated to be transformed into a series of high-rise towers, with new retail, tech and tourist-related buildings set amidst parkland. It will also include San Diego’s answer to Seattle’s Space Needle, anchoring the continent's southwestern corner. It is a $1.5 billion project, to be built on 70 acres around the current site. More than 30 acres are expected to be parks and open space. While the decline of malls and department stores sealed Horton Plaza's fate, the current 14-acre Seaport Village is still prosperous. Its two-story buildings are a draw for tourists and locals, a San Diego version of San Francisco's Pier 39. Seaport's Village current tenant mix is made up of small businesses that aren't typically found in malls -- a kite store, a magic shop, a store selling magnets, and one selling tiles. "Seaport Village is entirely based on impulse purchases," said Chris Glenn, who owns four stores there. "You're not going there to buy a suit." Glenn said supporters of the village say "it's quaint," or "it's perfect and shouldn't be touched." But other San Diegans, he said, "say it's a run-down tourist trap that should be torn down."

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