Midway Rising goes to the full council today, in three votes
The City Council holds a special meeting on Monday devoted entirely to Midway Rising, the proposed redevelopment of the city owned Sports Arena site in the Midway district. Three items, starting at 1 p.m., would set up the financing district, approve the project and its land use package, and approve the disposition and development agreement with Midway Rising LLC.
CITY HALL: The City Council gives its whole Monday to one project. The special meeting of November 9 opens with a closed session at 10 a.m., and the discussion session that begins at 1 p.m. carries three items, every one of them about Midway Rising, the proposed redevelopment of the approximately 49 acre Sports Arena site in the Midway area. The council president's office set the afternoon session earlier than usual, at 1 p.m., to give the three items more time.
The site is city owned land at 3220, 3240, 3250, 3350 and 3500 Sports Arena Boulevard, south of Interstate 8 and the San Diego River, north of Sports Arena Boulevard, east of Hancock Street and west of Camino del Rio West, in the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Plan area and in Council District 2. The council chose the Midway Rising team for the site on September 13, 2022, when it selected the developer as the successful respondent to the city's notice of availability and authorized staff to negotiate an exclusive negotiating agreement.
Item 600: the financing district comes first
The first item asks the council to declare that it intends to create an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District covering the Sports Arena redevelopment, and to establish the district's Public Financing Authority as its governing body. The financing district is the mechanism the project relies on for the infrastructure work the redevelopment requires, and it is taken up before the project approvals themselves.
Item 601: the project and its land use package
The second item is the project itself, filed as PRJ-1106734. As described in the council's own preview, the approvals would allow demolition of the existing San Diego Sports Arena and construction of up to 4,254 dwelling units, including at least 2,000 affordable dwelling units, roughly 130,000 square feet of commercial space, parks and public space, and an approximately 16,000 seat multipurpose entertainment center.
The document list the city has published for the item shows the breadth of the package: amendments to the General Plan and the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Plan, adoption of the Midway Rising Specific Plan as the long term development framework for the site, municipal code amendments creating a Midway Rising Entertainment Center District, and a site development permit that authorizes demolition of the existing arena, which the city treats as a historic resource, and sets the conditions that come with it.
Item 602: the agreement
The third item covers the agreement itself: the disposition and development agreement for the city owned property at 3500, 3250, 3220 and 3240 Sports Arena Boulevard, between the city and Midway Rising LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. The city's project page describes the agreement as the proposed ground lease disposition and development agreement for the long term lease and development of the site as a mixed use project with a new entertainment arena, market rate and affordable housing, retail, and public and park space.
The package reaches the full council with one committee hearing behind it. The city records that the agreement and the related real estate documents were presented and approved unanimously at a special meeting of the council's Land Use and Housing Committee on Friday, October 16, 2026. The council's Independent Budget Analyst has also reported on the deal twice: a review of the proposed Midway Rising development project on October 12, and a revised report on November 3 examining what happens if the Midway site is used as an off site affordable housing receiver site. A City Attorney memo on Midway Rising, also dated November 3, sits in the meeting's supporting documents.
Monday's votes decide whether the project moves from negotiation to entitlement. Whatever the council does with the three items, the record it acts on is now public in full: the agenda, the specific plan, the environmental record and the agreement itself are all posted on the city's Midway Rising page, and the hearing is held in the council chambers with public comment on each item.
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