Today is Horton Plaza’s 30th Birthday!!
In my opinion, there are 3 major developments that have helped downtown San Diego become what it is today. Those 3 are: Horton Plaza, Convention Center & Petco Park.
On August 9, 1985, after 13 years of planning, developer Ernest W. Han saw Horton Plaza open to the residences of Downtown San Diego and all. 6 ½ blocks in the center of downtown San Diego was transformed into 900,000 sqft of business retail. It cost $200 million to complete.
There have been many changes at Horton Plaza over the years and only Norstrom is the only department store that remains today.
Because of Horton Plaza and what it has done for the city of San Diego, other developments have come and really have revitalized downtown. Downtown San Diego real estate has really boomed after Horton Plaza was developed. No one wanted to live in downtown until Horton Plaza was built where people then began to see what a beautiful city it would be to live in.