{"id":369264,"date":"2026-06-21T16:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T16:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/369264\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T16:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T16:35:08","slug":"coronado-ferry-landing-could-get-a-35-year-lease-with-redevelopment-starting-a-year-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/369264\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronado Ferry Landing could get a 35-year lease, with redevelopment starting a year early"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The 13-acre Coronado Ferry Landing hosts 24 subtenants \u2014 a mixture of restaurants and specialty retailers. Photo by Dani Schwartz.<\/p>\n

With just over a week left on its lease, the operator of the Coronado Ferry Landing appears to have settled its differences with its landlord and could end up running the waterfront retail center for another 35 years.<\/p>\n

The San Diego Board of Port Commissioners will vote June 23 on an option-to-lease agreement with longtime operator Port Coronado Associates (PCA).<\/p>\n

The proposal moves up construction on the Ferry Landing\u2019s redevelopment by a full year, to 2027, and cuts the construction timeline from 36 months to 24.<\/p>\n

If approved, PCA would have 12 months to meet a list of preconditions before signing a 35-year lease or losing its right to lease the property.<\/p>\n

The deal also folds in structural and utility work on the ferry pier itself, which wasn\u2019t part of the original scope, and calls for hiring an \u201cactivation consultant\u201d to program public spaces with seasonal events.<\/p>\n

The proposed agreement comes after eight months of debate in public and closed session.<\/p>\n

In October, the Port announced<\/a> it would not renew its lease with PCA, which has operated the waterfront property since the 1980s, and would instead take over operation of the 13-acre site itself, a decision Coronado leaders called opaque and unilateral.<\/p>\n

The move stalled a $20 million planned redevelopment of the property and left food and retail tenants unsure of their futures.<\/p>\n

By November, Port staff were pointing to roughly $17.5 million in deferred maintenance<\/a> as justification, though PCA said these concerns had never been disclosed. By December, the Board had reversed course again, voting unanimously<\/a> to send the matter back to closed-session negotiations after PCA submitted a revised proposal addressing those maintenance concerns.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s vote could mark the end of the saga and catalyze the Ferry Landing\u2019s long-awaited renovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoronado has waited long enough, and it was important to get this issue resolved to yield the type of Coronado Ferry Landing that the city deserves,\u201d said Frank Urtasun, Coronado\u2019s representative on the Board of Port Commissioners. \u201cI think under this plan, we will get that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Urtasun thanked Coronado\u2019s leaders, particularly Mayor John Duncan, for pushing for transparency in and resolution of the matter.<\/p>\n

The Ferry Landing sits on land that is part of a public trust overseen by the Port of San Diego under the California Public Trust Doctrine<\/a>, which requires that waterfront land be used for purposes that benefit the public.<\/p>\n

The Port cannot sell public trust land, and it often enters into long-term leases with private companies that promise to invest capital into development or improvement. Under this model, the Port retains ownership and regulatory control of the land, but private companies finance and operate businesses on it under lease terms that allow them to recover their investment over time.<\/p>\n

Since then, according to a staff report, PCA has resolved approximately 95 deferred maintenance items on the property. The staff report also says the new terms are designed to keep the renovation on schedule.<\/p>\n

PCA\u2019s renovation plan now carries a $13.9 million price tag for landside and pier improvements, plus a separate requirement to spend no less than $5.3 million on future subtenant improvement projects \u2014 bringing the total investment close to the $20 million PCA had originally proposed back in 2022.<\/p>\n

Under the proposed deal structure, PCA must meet a number of conditions for redevelopment of the Ferry Landing in the next 12 months, including securing project financing, obtaining permits, submitting working drawings, posting payment and performance bonds, beginning early demolition and parking work, and lining up signed letters of intent for at least 25 percent of the center\u2019s leasable space.<\/p>\n

The current lease, set to expire June 30, 2026, would stay in force during that option period so long as PCA keeps up its obligations. If PCA fails to meet the preconditions, the option lapses, and the company would be required to hand the property back to the Port in good order, at no cost to the Port.<\/p>\n

During the 35-year lease, PCA\u2019s rent would be tied to a percentage of the center\u2019s sales, with a minimum payment of $600,000 to start. That floor climbs in four steps over the life of the lease, more than doubling at the first jump alone, before reaching nearly $2 million by the end of the 35-year term.<\/p>\n

By comparison, PCA paid the Port approximately $1.09 million in rent in fiscal year 2025, when the center generated nearly $29.4 million in gross sales.<\/p>\n

The agreement also includes a penalty clause: if PCA hasn\u2019t finished the renovation by July 1, 2029, rent automatically increases by $250,000 on a per diem basis until the work is done or the lease is terminated. The staff report does not clarify exactly how that penalty would be calculated.<\/p>\n

The new lease leans heavily into the maintenance disputes that defined the fall. PCA would be required to spend at least 5 percent of its average annual gross income every five years on upkeep and repair, and to commission independent condition assessments of the property at lease years 10, 20, and 30 \u2014 addressing whatever those assessments turn up. Mid-term reviews would also benchmark subtenant occupancy and sales performance against expectations.<\/p>\n

The Board of Port Commissioners will vote on the proposal during its open session meeting at 1 p.m. on June 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 13-acre Coronado Ferry Landing hosts 24 subtenants \u2014 a mixture of restaurants and specialty retailers. Photo by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[149724,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-369264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-coronado-ferry-landing","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}