The storied Spreckels Building and Theatre at 121 Broadway, once a symbol of opulence and San Diego’s emerging status in the early 20th century, is being offered for sale by auction in a distressed sale fueled by the current owner’s inability to repay its debt.
This week, the historic property was listed on the online bidding platform RI Marketplace with the title, “Lender Driven: Value-Add Mixed-Use Landmark Investment.” A 48-hour bidding window for the Spreckels Building begins on March 23 at 9 a.m., with the starting bid listed as $5 million, the website states.
The auction marks a failed attempt to secure a buyer through a more traditional process.
New York-based real estate investment firm Taconic Capital Advisors and its partner Triangle Capital Group purchased the Spreckels Building in April 2021 for $26.5 million. The transaction was financed with an $18 million loan from Thorofare Capital, property records show. At the time, the group promised a top-to-bottom restoration of the six-story building, including a state-of-the-art makeover of the venue’s famed theater.
The property has, however, been for sale since March 1, 2024, according to real estate tracker CoStar.
The seller’s broker, Cushman & Wakefield, did not respond to a request to comment for this story.
Completed in 1912, the Spreckels Building was commissioned by sugar magnate John D. Spreckels to commemorate the opening of the Panama Canal and the Pan American Exposition of 1915. The property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and represents one of the first attempts of “bringing the best that money could buy” to San Diego, according to federal registry documents. The building was designed by Los Angeles architect Harrison Albright, and is celebrated for its Chicago-style facade, Baroque interior and live performance acoustics.
The six-story building includes 40,739 square feet of partially occupied street-level shops, 127,490 square feet of vacant office space on floors two through six, 134 parking spaces in an underground garage and the 1,463-seat Spreckels Theatre. The property sits on an acre of land and takes up a full city block. The performance venue, which was at one time set to be run by ASM Global, has remained closed since it shut down in 2020 because of the pandemic.
The building’s remaining retail tenants and 134 parking spaces bring in around $750,000 of income each year, according to a Cushman & Wakefield sales brochure prepared for the initial listing.
The Spreckels Building and Theatre on Broadway in downtown San Diego on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The lender-driven nature of the online auction means the Spreckels Building has likely reached a climatic turn in the sales process.
“Lender-driven typically means that the property hasn’t been officially foreclosed on, but the lender is in control of the decision-making process,” said Richard Gonor, an executive with Jones Lange LaSalle. “This generally happens after a loan comes due and the property isn’t able to be refinanced or sold.”
The auction site touts the building’s location at Broadway and First Avenue as being at the intersection of “main-and-main,” lists property tax benefits available to buyers, and notes that the five office floors can be converted to residential, educational or hotel use.
A buyer will, however, need to preserve the building’s historic elements.
“The building contains architecturally significant Baroque style interiors, such as the theater and lobby spaces, that would need to be preserved,” said Kelley Stanco, a deputy director in the city’s Planning Department. “The upstairs office spaces and hallways are not significant and could feasibly be converted to hotel or residential use. Exterior architectural elements, such as the building’s characteristic large wood windows, would need to be preserved, repaired or replaced in-kind.”
The property’s proximity to the Campus at Horton may also factor into bids. The redeveloped property, which takes up seven blocks and remains fenced off, was foreclosed on by the developer’s lender last year.
However, Horton’s downfall, amid the collapse of the downtown office market, appears distinct from the Spreckels Building situation.
The iconic theater building has floundered primarily because its most celebrated feature demands a highly specialized owner, Gonor said.
“The main component of this project is the theater. So you have to have a solid business plan for the theater to be successful in order for the investment to work,” Gonor said. “To find an office investor, or if converted a hotel or multi-family housing investor, that also wants to specialize in theaters and event space — there’s not very many people that are interested in doing that.”
The site, he said, has garnered a lot of interest from residential and hotel investors over the past several months, but is more suitable for an entertainment group versed in the concert business.
At least one brand-name entertainment group took a look at the Spreckels property.
Between June and December, Brian Platt, a partner with UMH Development, had multiple discussions with staff in the city’s Development Services and Planning departments about the property, said Brian Schoenfisch, who heads the city’s Urban Division. UMH Development is the North American development partner for UMusic Hotels.
The discussions were related to historic preservation regulations, downtown development incentive programs and the building conversion process, he said.