Filled with theoretical promise, the mostly finished Campus at Horton is a hollow shell of what should be, by now, an employment hub and public attraction demonstrating downtown San Diego’s greatest strengths. More than six years after buying the iconic real estate, developer Stockdale Capital Partners is past due on many of its pledges, and time is no longer on its side. The Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm is staring down at least one critical deadline that can’t be shifted. Its contractors and subcontractors are owed millions for unpaid work and have walked off the job. And the developer’s best chance at a happy ending — a deal with the city of San Diego — was snuffed out late last year. Even still, Stockdale insists that 2025 will mark a visible turning point for the more than half-a-billion-dollar project that has been beset by challenges, some clearly out of the developer’s control. “The project is closing out. There’s some arm wrestling over a few outstanding billings, but the thing is going to open,” said Dan Michaels, managing partner at Stockdale Capital Partners, who remains confident that downtown’s depressed office sector will rebound. “Downtown San Diego will be as strong as ever. It will recover. It has the talent. It has the education pool,” he said. “There is no other project like Horton that will have the tenant amenity base and housing and offer commercial space to the degree that we can, in terms of ceiling heights, the floor plates. It’s unparalleled. At the end of the day, the best space wins.” Michaels invited the Union-Tribune to tour the project site on Thursday, and said that a portion of the campus will open in the fall, starting with a handful of restaurants and retailers that are currently in the middle of, or preparing to start, tenant improvements. Sprouts Farmers Market, boutique gym Studio Three and specialty juice bar SunLife Organics are, for instance, outfitting their first- and second-floor spaces in what’s being called building 200, just off First Avenue at the southwest end of the campus. There are, however, no office tenants to speak of and the debut of the project’s featured attraction, Horton Plaza Park, is still fuzzy. The developer must complete the urban park space on Broadway before the end of year if it wants to remain in good standing with the city of the San Diego. “This isn’t about the quality of the location or the quality of the retrofit. This is all about just terrible market timing,” said real estate analyst Gary London, a principal of local firm London Moeder Advisors. “(The project) is being presented to the market at a time when the office market is on its heels at a level that we’ve never seen before,” he said. “It’s the quality projects that succeed over time. … At some point, we will look back upon this project, just like the RaDD project, and recognize that it’s one of the top quality projects in downtown San Diego. The problem is that, is it going to be that for this ownership or a succeeding ownership?” Horton Plaza’s former Nordstrom store is now building 100 at the Campus at Horton. Stockdale Capital Partners remade the department store into its marquee lab and office building, adding five new floors. (Stockdale Capital Partners, LLC) The Campus at Horton is the reincarnation of Horton Plaza, the 1980s-era, post-modern mall famous for helping to revitalize downtown. The 10-acre property consists of seven blocks between First and Fourth avenues, starting with Horton Plaza Park along Broadway to the north and cascading south to G Street. In August 2018, Stockdale purchased the retail center for $175 million. The following year, the developer was granted approval to convert the mall into a mixed-use campus with 772,000 square feet of office space and 300,000 square feet of retail. The developer also intends, in a second phase that is likely still a few years out, to construct more than 800 apartments in two, new skyscrapers. Preliminary demolition work on the office-and-retail campus started in July 2019 with construction kicking into high gear after the developer secured a $330 million loan from AllianceBernstein in March 2020. In December 2022, Stockdale executed a 25-year lease with the city for the adjacent Horton Plaza Park. Over the years, the developer has long promised to bring new jobs — and new life — to the heart of downtown. But the marketing messages, and deadlines, have bounced around amid a downtown office market that collapsed in the aftermath of the pandemic. Initially, Stockdale was targeting out-of-town tech giants. Then, the firm was recruiting life science companies, tacking on the added expense of incorporating specialized building systems. The developer even went so far as to finish a speculative wet lab on the second floor of its marquee building — building 100, or the former Nordstrom store — on G Street. Most recently, the real estate developer, was in advanced talks with the city of San Diego. The city was negotiating a deal to buy a bulk of the property’s office space, concentrated in buildings 100 and 200, to replace its aging City Hall complex and house its downtown workforce. The bottom of building 100 at the Campus at Horton, which opens on to First Avenue. (Stockdale Capital Partners, LLC) Progress on the deal halted abruptly late last year when San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria abandoned his sweeping Civic Center Revitalization plan, citing the city’s substantial structural budget deficit and a failed sales tax measure. The plan was to offer the city’s downtown real estate for redevelopment as part of an effort to buy or build a new City Hall facility for government workers. “My impression was that it was a serious conversation (with Stockdale) for the pursuit of the best terms possible for the city and to provide the city options for properties that could be utilized for City Hall to perform city business,” San Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera said. Elo-Rivera, who was not involved in negotiations, said that the city was also advancing a competing deal with the Irvine Company for Wells Fargo Plaza. “For the better part of 2024, we were assisting various members of the city to assess options with regards to City Hall and the Civic Center Revitalization. What became clear very early on was the significant cost of new construction given inflationary pressures, not to mention the time and complexity to rebuild from scratch,” Michaels said. “This led to discussions around a potential transaction with Horton Plaza, as noted in the press, while the city continued to assess their options. While not our original intent, we began to see how it made sense for the city, as there is no other location in downtown that can immediately house 2,300-plus employees on one site with ample parking,” the real estate executive said. “As everyone knows, City Hall is extremely outdated and does not reflect San Diego’s best-in-class nature. At some point, the city will need to invest in its future and on behalf of its city employees. Hopefully, the city can determine the best path forward.” The mayor’s office declined to comment for this story. Elo-Rivera said the city should not shut itself off to opportunities. “The reality is that we have a structural budget deficit and we’re looking at tough decisions in this budget cycle. At the same time, the conversation about a potential relocation of City Hall would have a multigenerational impact to the city, and could be critical to ensuring that a really important part of downtown stays viable as a business district, as a place where folks want to live, work and visit.” The seemingly dead deal killed with it the prospect of a project anchor that could help offset Stockdale’s development costs. Although Michaels said money is not a problem, the Campus at Horton is encumbered by two dozen mechanics liens recorded against the property by contractors and subcontractors. The liens, obtained by the Union-Tribune, total $19.4 million, not including interest, in unpaid construction bills from April 2024 through January 2025. The actual amount owed is likely less, however, as the primary contractors, Turner Construction Company and JB Pacific, Inc., are responsible for paying the project’s subcontractors. The Turner and JB Pacific liens recorded against the property total $14.6 million, public records show. The developer said it is in active talks with its contractors, and that it has intentionally held back some payments, in a standard construction practice known as retention, as it goes through end-of-project checklists. The situation will need to be rectified rather quickly if Stockdale wants to complete Horton Plaza Park before the end of the year, as is required per the terms of its lease agreement with the city. The lease originally required the developer to open the urban park within 24 months. In October, the city administratively granted Stockdale a one-year extension through Dec. 26, 2025, a spokesperson for the city said. The park contract does not allow for additional extensions. A portion of Horton Plaza Park as seen from behind a construction fence earlier this month. The urban park is due to be upgraded with millions of dollars in improvements, although it remains mostly untouched. (Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune) The park, which is the front door of the campus and is supposed to be upgraded with millions of dollars in improvements, looks mostly untouched, a stark contrast to the finished building exteriors just steps away. To date, the developer has demolished two of the park’s former food-and-beverage kiosks that it intends to replace, but it has otherwise held off on substantial remodel work. Stockdale notified the city that previously announced park tenant Shake Shack pulled out of the project over the summer. “The park plans continue. We’re finalizing designs and (the park) will be integrated with the opening of the project in the third quarter,” Michaels said. London, the real estate expert, said Stockdale is not unlike other developers, including IQHQ, who are, “extending and pretending” their way through a market mired by high office vacancy, low lease rates, slow absorption and pandemic-fueled changes to how companies operate. 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He characterized the former Horton Plaza retail center as one of downtown’s three original anchors, alongside Petco Park and the Convention Center, that pulled people from around town and even outside the region to the city’s center. “This is something that no one wants to — or can — abandon. Can you imagine a hole in downtown San Diego? That’s why I think it’s so important that the city find a way to revisit this,” he said. “What it requires is for the mayor to understand a little bit of history in San Diego. (The original Horton Plaza retail center) is the project that propelled Pete Wilson to governorship and to the senate. The mayor has a similar opportunity.” Wilson, who was elected as San Diego’s mayor in 1971, is often credited with helping to revive downtown’s then-seedy Gaslamp Quarter while in office. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1982 and elected Governor of California in 1990.