The new Home Depot is nearing completion at 1545 Camino del Rio South, occupying the former site of the Scottish Rite Event Center and adjacent former bowling alley property just east of Texas Street. Visible from Interstate 8, the project has been under construction for more than two years and represents one of the largest new retail developments currently underway in central San Diego.
According to company representatives, the Mission Valley store is expected to open during Summer 2026 and will include a full-service Home Depot with a garden center, tool rental services, contractor resources, and a multi-level parking structure designed to accommodate the area's growing population.
The development is significant not only because of its size but because it brings one of the nation's most recognizable home improvement retailers directly into one of San Diego's fastest-growing residential corridors. Mission Valley has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past decade, evolving from a primarily commercial district into a dense mixed-use neighborhood with thousands of new apartments, condominiums, and townhomes either recently completed or currently under construction.
The approximately 125,000-square-foot store will be paired with a roughly 155,000-square-foot parking garage, creating a retail destination that is expected to serve customers from Mission Valley, North Park, Hillcrest, Kensington, Normal Heights, Serra Mesa, Allied Gardens, Del Cerro, and surrounding communities.
For longtime San Diegans, the site itself carries a considerable amount of history. Before demolition, the property housed the Scottish Rite Center, a longtime meeting and event venue that had occupied the location for decades. Adjacent to it sat a large bowling alley property whose roots stretched back to the postwar boom years of the 1950s and 1960s. At one point, the facility was promoted as one of the largest fully automatic bowling centers in the United States, serving generations of league bowlers and recreational players before ultimately closing amid changing consumer habits and redevelopment pressures.
The project itself traces back to San Diego's 2019 Mission Valley Community Plan Update, which envisioned significantly increased housing density, mixed-use development, improved transit access, and new commercial investment throughout the corridor. The arrival of Home Depot represents one of the more visible examples of that long-term vision beginning to materialize.
Founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus, Arthur Blank, Pat Farrah, and Ron Brill, Home Depot revolutionized the home improvement industry through its warehouse-style format, offering professional contractors and everyday homeowners access to a vast selection of building materials, tools, appliances, garden products, and home improvement supplies under a single roof.
The company opened its first stores in Atlanta and rapidly expanded throughout the United States during the 1980s and 1990s, helping create the modern big-box home improvement category. Today, Home Depot operates more than 2,300 stores across North America and employs hundreds of thousands of associates.
San Diego County has long been one of Home Depot's strongest markets. The retailer currently operates approximately a dozen locations throughout the region, including stores in Kearny Mesa, Clairemont, Point Loma, Santee, Poway, Escondido, Oceanside, Encinitas, San Marcos, El Cajon, National City, and Chula Vista. Despite that extensive footprint, Home Depot has not opened a brand-new San Diego location of this scale in years.
The timing is notable as well. The new Mission Valley store arrives as San Diego continues experiencing sustained demand for housing construction, remodeling projects, landscaping improvements, and infrastructure upgrades. Home Depot has increasingly focused on serving both traditional retail customers and professional contractors, a strategy that has helped fuel the company's growth despite broader economic fluctuations.
The Mission Valley location is reportedly one of only a small number of new Home Depot stores planned nationwide this year, underscoring the company's confidence in San Diego's continued growth trajectory.
Once open, the store will become one of the most centrally located Home Depot locations in the county, providing convenient access to residents on both sides of Interstate 8 while adding another major retailer to Mission Valley's rapidly evolving commercial landscape.
Home Depot is expected to open later this summer at 1545 Camino del Rio South in San Diego's Mission Valley neighborhood. For more information, visit homedepot.com.
Originally published on June 17, 2026. Information first reported by Joey Reams of WhatNow.
