New owners redeveloping Belmont Park say they\u2019re not trying to reinvent Mission Beach\u2019s seven-acre, 88-year-old oceanside amusement complex. They are, however, trying to “localize” it.
\n“We\u2019re not Tahiti or Hawaii. We\u2019re California, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re scheming toward,” said Brett Miller, managing partner of Belmont Park, which is now jointly operated by hospitality company eat. drink. sleep (EDS) and Pacifica Real Estate Services. “Our goal is to have this park be one of the top six in San Diego, along with Petco Park, Qualcomm Stadium, San Diego Zoo, SeaWorld and Legoland.”
\nEDS, a Pacific Beach-based hospitality management company and Pacifica Enterprises, a Rancho Santa Fe-based real estate investment firm, have owned historic Belmont Park since November.
\nThe business partners, said Miller, are presently about one-third of the way through redeveloping the amusement park in the heart of Mission Beach. Belmont Park features an athletic club, amusement rides, retail shops, restaurants, multiple bars, a miniature golf course and FlowRider and FlowBarrel wave machines.
\nOn a recent walk-through of the park, Miller noted numerous renovations done or under way.
\n“This was all chain-link fence,” he said, pointing to glass now lining the outdoor patio next to the WaveHouse. Filling the space Cane\u2019s Beach Bar left when it vacated four years ago (before its lease ran out), is Cannonball on the upper level with a microbrew-style restaurant below.
\n“The Cannonball is our new concept,” Miller said. “It\u2019s a sushi bar with a splash.
\n“We are pulling away from being a retail center,” he said. “We want to go to an entertainment complex\/amusement park.”
\nThe park\u2019s general manager noted Cannonball\u2019s restrooms are now all state-of-the-art. He added the upper-level patio overlooking the ocean has been converted to more of a Southern California-beach look and feel with plenty of comfortable seating.
\nBelmont Park\u2019s redevelopment, however, has not been without its critics. Excerpts from emails circulated recently underscore concerns by local residents who fear that “the planned\/proposed south parking lot expansion at Belmont would remove\/ replace numerous standing trees,” and that plans for redeveloping Belmont “would destroy the (existing) Wyland mural.”
\nMiller said residents\u2019 fears on both counts are unfounded.
\n“If you look at everything we\u2019ve done, we\u2019re beautifying this property,” he said. “We\u2019re not going to take out all the trees. We\u2019re adding trees. If the perception is that we\u2019re tearing down trees, I apologize for that. We\u2019re trying to maximize the parking spaces because we don\u2019t have enough. And we don\u2019t have enough trees either. We\u2019ve got to find a way to add more things [like] vegetation.”
\nConcerning the huge Wyland mural of whales and other marine life, Miller said it\u2019s true that the fate of that particular mural is uncertain.
\n“We\u2019re trying to save it,” he said, noting it\u2019s on a wall that may require structural repair, which means it may have to go and there\u2019s no way to move it.
\n“But if we don\u2019t keep this one, then we\u2019re going to have him (Wyland) do another one,” Miller said.
\nBelmont Park had been in bankruptcy four years before EDS and Pacifica acquired it. The park has faced significant renovation barricades in recent years because of a lease dispute between the city and the city-owned park\u2019s previous primary leaseholder, Tom Lochtefeld.
\nRedevelopment challenges at Belmont have been made worse by the intermittent closure of the iconic Plunge pool because of repair needs and the ultimate court-appointed receivership of the park by East West Bank after Lochtefeld filed for bankruptcy in 2011. After filing for bankruptcy, Wave House Belmont Park, LLC sued the city of San Diego for breach of contract involving a commercial lease for Belmont Park. In a judicial foreclosure action, Symphony Asset Pool XVI LLC foreclosed upon the property.\u00a0
\nGeorge Schaefer, deputy city attorney, said the Wave House bankruptcy case is “still pending,” adding the principals have submitted a Chapter 11 reorganization plan.
\nSchaefer said a court hearing on the reorganization plan has been scheduled for Sept. 27. He added negotiations with the city\u2019s Real Estate Assets Department to resolve the lawsuit are ongoing. If those negotiations come to a successful conclusion, Schaeffer said it\u2019s possible the lawsuit Wave House brought against the city will be dismissed.
\nMeanwhile, the Belmont Park revamp continues. Part of Cannonball is already open, and Miller said the remaining portion of the sushi bar will open sometime this fall. The microbrew pub downstairs could be in by November.
\n“In November, we\u2019re also going to redo the midway as well,” said Miller. “We\u2019ll put up all new signage to make it more like an amusement park, put in a bunch of brand new rides, redo all the concrete.”
\nBelmont Park will remain open through construction.
\n“We\u2019re planning to be here for a long time,” said Miller of the developer\u2019s long-range plans.
\nFor more information about Belmont Park, visit www.belmontpark.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New owners redeveloping Belmont Park say they\u2019re not trying to reinvent Mission Beach\u2019s seven-acre, 88-year-old oceanside amusement complex. They are, however, trying to “localize” it. “We\u2019re not Tahiti or Hawaii. We\u2019re California, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re scheming toward,” said Brett Miller, managing partner of Belmont Park, which is now jointly operated by hospitality company eat. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":268431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Changes in store for Belmont Park complex","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}