Kobey's Swap Meet, the sprawling outdoor marketplace that has operated in the San Diego Sports Arena parking lot for 46 years, is asking city officials to help ensure it survives the massive Midway Rising redevelopment. The appeal comes just days after the San Diego City Council unanimously approved the controversial project on November 9, advancing a development whose selection process has been shadowed by questions involving political contributions, undisclosed lobbying expenditures and the financial terms of a long-term lease of valuable public property.
For Kobey's, the stakes are considerably more personal. The family-owned business has operated for 50 years, welcomed more than 40 million shoppers and provided an affordable place for generations of independent vendors to earn a living. Now its owners are seeking something seemingly modest compared with the billions of dollars being negotiated around them: a seat at the table.
"We support redevelopment. We are not asking the City to stop Midway Rising. We are asking for a practical path forward for Kobey's," the family states in a newly launched Change.org petition.
The petition was organized by Anthony Pretto, the third-generation operator of Kobey's and the company's vice president of operations. Pretto spoke in support of Midway Rising at the November 9 City Council hearing while urging officials to consider the future of his family's business.
Despite the project's approval, Kobey's says it has no confirmed long-term arrangement that would allow it to remain at the Sports Arena site once construction begins. The family is currently working with arena management to negotiate a short-term interim lease, but its ability to operate during the redevelopment, or anywhere within the finished project, remains uncertain.
The family has already participated in preliminary discussions with Midway Rising representatives, but is now asking the city to become directly involved in developing a realistic plan.
Its concerns are not simply about finding another parking lot. Kobey's depends on extensive space for vendors, customer parking, vehicle access, equipment storage, admission gates and other infrastructure that would be difficult to reproduce within a conventional retail development.
The family says the current Midway Rising plans do not appear to provide the conditions necessary to preserve the business at its existing scale. A small weekend market incorporated into a park or public plaza, it argues, would not accommodate the hundreds of vendors and thousands of customers who rely on the operation.
Kobey's is therefore asking the city to help establish a construction-period operating plan, evaluate whether a full-size swap meet can be incorporated into the completed redevelopment and, if that proves impossible, assist in identifying another suitable location within San Diego.
The uncertainty threatens a business whose history is intertwined with the Sports Arena itself.
Kobey's was founded in 1976 by Monte Kobey, who started the business at the former Midway Drive-In Theatre with just 13 sellers and approximately 200 shoppers. After learning the swap meet business in Phoenix, Kobey brought the concept to San Diego and gradually developed a marketplace that would become a weekend tradition for generations of residents.
In August 1980, Kobey's relocated to the Sports Arena parking lot at 3500 Sports Arena Boulevard, where it has operated on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays ever since.
During its peak years in the 1980s, the swap meet became one of San Diego's busiest visitor attractions, reportedly ranking behind only the San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld in attendance.
Monte Kobey died in 1989, leaving the business to his daughter, Kimberly Kobey Pretto, who continued operating it alongside her husband, Charles Pretto. Charles died of leukemia in January 2024, and the business is now led by Kimberly and their son Anthony.
Anthony hopes his twin daughters, Sofia and Isabella, will someday represent the fourth generation of the family to operate the marketplace.
According to the family's figures, Kobey's currently employs approximately 45 people, hosts more than 1,000 sellers across a typical weekend and attracts approximately 20,000 shoppers weekly.
The swap meet has also helped thousands of entrepreneurs establish businesses without the enormous financial commitments associated with traditional commercial leases. For immigrant families, collectors, small retailers and people earning supplemental income, a vendor space at Kobey's can offer an accessible entry into San Diego's increasingly expensive business environment.
The marketplace has survived recessions, changing consumer habits, the rise of online shopping and the COVID-19 pandemic. But its greatest vulnerability has always been the land beneath it.
Kobey's does not own the Sports Arena parking lot. Its operations are tied to arrangements with arena management, and the city's agreements have historically allowed San Diego to receive a percentage of swap meet-related revenue.
Under the current interim arena lease framework, the city is entitled to 25 percent of swap meet usage revenue. That means the city has a direct financial interest in the commercial activity taking place at Kobey's, even as the redevelopment threatens to eliminate the space that makes the marketplace possible.
The city has now approved a dramatically different future for the property.
Midway Rising calls for approximately 4,250 residential units, including 2,000 income-restricted affordable homes, a new entertainment arena accommodating up to 16,000 spectators, approximately 130,000 square feet of commercial space and more than 14 acres of parks and public areas.
The project is being advanced by a development team involving Zephyr Partners, Chelsea Investment Corporation, Legends and The Kroenke Group, associated with billionaire Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke.
Supporters contend the development will transform an aging, underutilized property into a modern residential and entertainment district while delivering desperately needed housing, union construction jobs and new public amenities.
But the terms of the agreement have attracted considerable criticism, particularly because of the value of the land and the relatively modest payments the city will initially receive.
The approximately 48.5-acre property was appraised at $75.6 million in March 2025. Under the negotiated agreement, the developer will pay just $100,000 annually in base rent during the horizontal ground lease period, which can extend for as long as 15 years.
The city will eventually receive additional payments associated with market-rate housing, retail and the new entertainment arena, but much of that revenue is deferred far into the future.
The agreement projects approximately $896.3 million in ground rent over the full duration of the various leases. However, when those payments are discounted to present-day dollars, their estimated value falls to approximately $23.2 million.
The city's Independent Budget Analyst estimated the combined present value of development rent and arena-related revenues at approximately $38.1 million to $68.5 million, depending on financial assumptions and future performance.
The new arena's ticket charge will not begin until 10 years after the facility receives its final certificate of occupancy. Even then, 75 percent of the ticket charge will be deferred until the developer has recovered applicable costs and achieved a 16.5 percent internal rate of return.
Critics argue that the structure gives the developer substantial financial advantages while postponing meaningful revenue for the city.
At the November 9 hearing, former city real estate official Marc Frederick challenged the economics of the arrangement, arguing that a conventional return on $75 million in land value would produce millions of dollars annually rather than $100,000.
Councilmember Raul Campillo also criticized the city's broader approach to negotiating major real estate transactions, describing the process as structurally flawed even as he voted to approve the project.
The Independent Budget Analyst nevertheless concluded that the negotiated agreement was fair and reasonable when considered alongside the developer's obligations to finance the new arena, infrastructure and affordable housing.
That assessment has not ended questions about whether San Diego is receiving adequate compensation for a publicly owned property that will be controlled through long-term leases extending across much of the next century.
Nor has it resolved the political controversy that has followed Midway Rising since the development team was selected.
At the center of that controversy is Brad Termini, the developer behind Zephyr Partners and a principal figure in Midway Rising, whose financial support for Mayor Todd Gloria's political rise has been extensively documented.
In October 2019, Termini and his wife, Stefanie, each contributed $50,000 to an independent expenditure committee supporting Gloria's 2020 mayoral campaign. The committee was sponsored by Laborers' International Union of North America Local 89.
The couple's combined $100,000 contribution represented more than one-fifth of the committee's fundraising and made them its two largest individual contributors, according to reporting based on campaign finance disclosures. The couple also reportedly contributed at least $4,500 directly to Gloria's campaign.
Those contributions preceded Midway Rising's selection for the Sports Arena redevelopment.
After an earlier redevelopment effort initiated under former Mayor Kevin Faulconer ran into problems involving California's Surplus Land Act, Gloria's administration restarted the selection process. In September 2022, the City Council voted to enter exclusive negotiations with Midway Rising following Gloria's recommendation.
The mayor's office has maintained that the Terminis' political support did not influence the selection process, and the contributions were made before the development team submitted its proposal.
There has been no established finding that Gloria improperly awarded the project in exchange for campaign support. Nevertheless, the financial relationship has fueled persistent questions about political access and the appearance of favoritism in the awarding of one of San Diego's most valuable redevelopment opportunities.
The controversy deepened when it emerged that Midway Rising had paid substantial sums to a politically connected consultant while failing to disclose those expenditures within the deadlines required by city law.
According to reporting by Voice of San Diego, Midway Rising paid political consultant Dan Rottenstreich $154,000 between October 2021 and July 2022 for communications, political strategy and related work. Subsequent filings brought the reported total to approximately $203,000.
Rottenstreich is married to Brigette Browning, the influential head of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, which supported the redevelopment proposal.
Browning publicly advocated for Midway Rising during the selection process, while the developer's payments to her husband were not disclosed to the public through timely lobbying filings.
The San Diego Ethics Commission subsequently fined Midway Rising and related entities $5,000 for filing required expenditure lobbying reports late.
The commission's findings emphasized that the missing disclosures deprived the public, competing development teams and city officials of information that could have been relevant during significant stages of the selection process.
The developer's attorney self-reported the violations after conducting an internal compliance review, a factor considered in resolving the matter.
The payments and late disclosures were not evidence of bribery, but they exposed a network of political consulting, organized labor advocacy and development interests that was not fully visible to the public when the city made its decision.
Additional questions arose when the composition of the development team changed after its selection.
In 2023, The Kroenke Group acquired a controlling ownership interest in Midway Rising, with reporting indicating its stake would increase to as much as 95 percent once construction begins.
The arrangement brought considerable financial resources to the project, but also raised questions about the extent to which the team ultimately controlling the redevelopment differed from the one initially presented to city officials.
The development proposal itself also changed.
A previously proposed 200-room hotel was eliminated, while 250 homes originally designated for middle-income households were converted to market-rate units. Developers attributed those changes to site constraints and financing conditions, including a major sewer pipeline beneath the property.
Critics described the revisions as a retreat from commitments used to secure public support, while the development team maintained that the modified project remained financially viable and preserved its central affordable housing commitments.
The project's environmental and legal history has been equally contentious.
San Diego voters approved measures intended to remove the coastal height limit from the Midway District in both 2020 and 2022, but courts invalidated the measures over deficiencies in environmental review.
Rather than seek another public vote, project supporters pursued legislation in Sacramento.
In September 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 344, legislation authored by state Senator Akilah Weber Pierson that declares the Midway Rising environmental impact report sufficient for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act once the required certification conditions are met.
Supporters argued the legislation would prevent years of additional litigation and allow the development's housing and public improvements to move forward.
Opponents condemned the measure as special treatment for a politically connected development project, arguing that it undermined the legal challenges that had twice succeeded in court.
The law does not eliminate the project's environmental mitigation requirements, but it substantially limits certain avenues for challenging the adequacy of its environmental review.
Despite the November 9 approval, Midway Rising is not yet ready to break ground.
The developer must still secure financing, satisfy development milestones, obtain necessary permits and finalize the applicable ground lease arrangements.
A central piece of the financial structure involves establishing an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District, which could direct future property tax growth toward eligible infrastructure improvements.
The financing district will require additional government action, including participation by San Diego County. The City Council's November 9 vote initiated that process but did not complete it.
The existing Pechanga Arena is expected to remain in operation until its replacement is completed, and the interim arena lease currently extends through December 2031, subject to the terms governing an earlier transition.
For Kobey's, that timeline presents a cruel uncertainty. Construction may still be years away, but the business cannot wait until bulldozers arrive to determine whether it has somewhere to operate.
And San Diego County has already witnessed what can happen when a longstanding swap meet survives on temporary extensions while its property is prepared for redevelopment.
The Santee Swap Meet, another multigenerational outdoor marketplace, held its final market on August 30, 2026, after decades of operation at the former Santee Drive-In Theatre property on Woodside Avenue.
The drive-in itself closed at the end of 2023 after approximately 65 years, but the swap meet continued operating under temporary extensions while plans advanced to redevelop the property.
The site was acquired by North Palisade Partners, a Los Angeles-based industrial real estate developer, for a project known as Palisade Commerce Center.
The redevelopment calls for approximately 290,000 square feet of industrial buildings on the roughly 13.5-acre property, replacing a venue that had served East County families and bargain hunters for decades.
The swap meet had operated since 1982, making its closure another significant loss for San Diego County's shrinking collection of traditional outdoor marketplaces.
For vendors who relied on Santee, the disappearance of the marketplace meant losing not just a place to shop or socialize, but a relatively affordable location to conduct business.
Kobey's now faces the prospect of following a similar path: continuing operations through temporary lease arrangements while the property's redevelopment moves forward, without knowing whether a permanent replacement will ever materialize.
The circumstances of the two projects are different. Santee involved privately owned property, while Kobey's operates on city-owned land. That gives San Diego officials a more direct role in determining how existing uses are treated as redevelopment progresses.
It also makes the questions surrounding Kobey's more difficult for City Hall to avoid.
The city has negotiated a redevelopment agreement involving billions of dollars, complex financing arrangements, substantial affordable housing commitments and long-term control of public land. Yet one of the property's most established businesses is still publicly asking officials to help determine whether it can survive.
There are legitimate reasons to redevelop the Sports Arena site. San Diego desperately needs more housing, the existing arena is aging, and the Midway District contains large parcels of land that could support significantly more intensive development.
Preserving every existing use may not be practical, and there is no guarantee that a swap meet requiring extensive surface parking can coexist with the completed project's residential towers, entertainment facilities and public spaces.
But those constraints make early planning more important, not less.
Kobey's is not demanding that the city abandon Midway Rising, provide a free replacement property or exempt the business from applicable regulations. It is asking officials to recognize that the redevelopment has consequences for an existing community institution and to work with its operators before the available options disappear.
The stakes extend beyond the Kobey family.
For approximately 1,000 weekend vendors, Kobey's represents access to customers without the overhead of a conventional storefront. For thousands of shoppers, it remains a place to find affordable merchandise, secondhand goods and an increasingly rare form of neighborhood commerce.
For the family that built the business, it represents half a century of work and the possibility of passing that legacy to another generation.
Mayor Gloria celebrated the November 9 approval as a major achievement for San Diego, declaring that his administration had assembled the public and private partnerships necessary to transform the property.
But the measure of a successful redevelopment should extend beyond the number of apartments constructed, the size of a new arena or the financial returns promised to developers.
It should also include how the city treats the people and businesses already occupying the land.
Kobey's has survived 50 years of economic changes and 46 years at the Sports Arena. The family is not asking San Diego to stop growing. It is asking whether the city's vision of progress can accommodate an institution that helped make the Midway District a destination long before the first Midway Rising rendering appeared.
With the agreement approved but financing, construction schedules and ground leases still being finalized, city officials have an opportunity to address that question before another San Diego institution becomes a casualty of redevelopment.
Kobey's Swap Meet remains open Friday through Sunday, from 7am to 3pm, at 3500 Sports Arena Boulevard in San Diego's Midway District. Supporters can sign the family's petition calling for a plan to preserve Kobey's or visit kobeyswap.com for additional information.
Originally published on November 15, 2026.
The uncertainty threatens a business whose history is intertwined with the Sports Arena itself.
Kobey's was founded in 1976 by Monte Kobey, who started the business at the former Midway Drive-In Theatre with just 13 sellers and approximately 200 shoppers. After learning the swap meet business in Phoenix, Kobey brought the concept to San Diego and gradually developed a marketplace that would become a weekend tradition for generations of residents.
In August 1980, Kobey's relocated to the Sports Arena parking lot at 3500 Sports Arena Boulevard, where it has operated on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays ever since.
During its peak years in the 1980s, the swap meet became one of San Diego's busiest visitor attractions, reportedly ranking behind only the San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld in attendance.
Monte Kobey died in 1989, leaving the business to his daughter, Kimberly Kobey Pretto, who continued operating it alongside her husband, Charles Pretto. Charles died of leukemia in January 2024, and the business is now led by Kimberly and their son Anthony.
Anthony hopes his twin daughters, Sofia and Isabella, will someday represent the fourth generation of the family to operate the marketplace.
According to the family's figures, Kobey's currently employs approximately 45 people, hosts more than 1,000 sellers across a typical weekend and attracts approximately 20,000 shoppers weekly.
The swap meet has also helped thousands of entrepreneurs establish businesses without the enormous financial commitments associated with traditional commercial leases. For immigrant families, collectors, small retailers and people earning supplemental income, a vendor space at Kobey's can offer an accessible entry into San Diego's increasingly expensive business environment.
The marketplace has survived recessions, changing consumer habits, the rise of online shopping and the COVID-19 pandemic. But its greatest vulnerability has always been the land beneath it.
Kobey's does not own the Sports Arena parking lot. Its operations are tied to arrangements with arena management, and the city's agreements have historically allowed San Diego to receive a percentage of swap meet-related revenue.
Under the current interim arena lease framework, the city is entitled to 25 percent of swap meet usage revenue. That means the city has a direct financial interest in the commercial activity taking place at Kobey's, even as the redevelopment threatens to eliminate the space that makes the marketplace possible.
The city has now approved a dramatically different future for the property.
Midway Rising calls for approximately 4,250 residential units, including 2,000 income-restricted affordable homes, a new entertainment arena accommodating up to 16,000 spectators, approximately 130,000 square feet of commercial space and more than 14 acres of parks and public areas.
The project is being advanced by a development team involving Zephyr Partners, Chelsea Investment Corporation, Legends and The Kroenke Group, associated with billionaire Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke.
Supporters contend the development will transform an aging, underutilized property into a modern residential and entertainment district while delivering desperately needed housing, union construction jobs and new public amenities.
But the terms of the agreement have attracted considerable criticism, particularly because of the value of the land and the relatively modest payments the city will initially receive.
The approximately 48.5-acre property was appraised at $75.6 million in March 2025. Under the negotiated agreement, the developer will pay just $100,000 annually in base rent during the horizontal ground lease period, which can extend for as long as 15 years.
The city will eventually receive additional payments associated with market-rate housing, retail and the new entertainment arena, but much of that revenue is deferred far into the future.
The agreement projects approximately $896.3 million in ground rent over the full duration of the various leases. However, when those payments are discounted to present-day dollars, their estimated value falls to approximately $23.2 million.
The city's Independent Budget Analyst estimated the combined present value of development rent and arena-related revenues at approximately $38.1 million to $68.5 million, depending on financial assumptions and future performance.
The new arena's ticket charge will not begin until 10 years after the facility receives its final certificate of occupancy. Even then, 75 percent of the ticket charge will be deferred until the developer has recovered applicable costs and achieved a 16.5 percent internal rate of return.
Critics argue that the structure gives the developer substantial financial advantages while postponing meaningful revenue for the city.
At the November 9 hearing, former city real estate official Marc Frederick challenged the economics of the arrangement, arguing that a conventional return on $75 million in land value would produce millions of dollars annually rather than $100,000.
Councilmember Raul Campillo also criticized the city's broader approach to negotiating major real estate transactions, describing the process as structurally flawed even as he voted to approve the project.
The Independent Budget Analyst nevertheless concluded that the negotiated agreement was fair and reasonable when considered alongside the developer's obligations to finance the new arena, infrastructure and affordable housing.
That assessment has not ended questions about whether San Diego is receiving adequate compensation for a publicly owned property that will be controlled through long-term leases extending across much of the next century.
Nor has it resolved the political controversy that has followed Midway Rising since the development team was selected.
At the center of that controversy is Brad Termini, the developer behind Zephyr Partners and a principal figure in Midway Rising, whose financial support for Mayor Todd Gloria's political rise has been extensively documented.
In October 2019, Termini and his wife, Stefanie, each contributed $50,000 to an independent expenditure committee supporting Gloria's 2020 mayoral campaign. The committee was sponsored by Laborers' International Union of North America Local 89.
The couple's combined $100,000 contribution represented more than one-fifth of the committee's fundraising and made them its two largest individual contributors, according to reporting based on campaign finance disclosures. The couple also reportedly contributed at least $4,500 directly to Gloria's campaign.
Those contributions preceded Midway Rising's selection for the Sports Arena redevelopment.
After an earlier redevelopment effort initiated under former Mayor Kevin Faulconer ran into problems involving California's Surplus Land Act, Gloria's administration restarted the selection process. In September 2022, the City Council voted to enter exclusive negotiations with Midway Rising following Gloria's recommendation.
The mayor's office has maintained that the Terminis' political support did not influence the selection process, and the contributions were made before the development team submitted its proposal.
There has been no established finding that Gloria improperly awarded the project in exchange for campaign support. Nevertheless, the financial relationship has fueled persistent questions about political access and the appearance of favoritism in the awarding of one of San Diego's most valuable redevelopment opportunities.
The controversy deepened when it emerged that Midway Rising had paid substantial sums to a politically connected consultant while failing to disclose those expenditures within the deadlines required by city law.
According to reporting by Voice of San Diego, Midway Rising paid political consultant Dan Rottenstreich $154,000 between October 2021 and July 2022 for communications, political strategy and related work. Subsequent filings brought the reported total to approximately $203,000.
Rottenstreich is married to Brigette Browning, the influential head of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, which supported the redevelopment proposal.
Browning publicly advocated for Midway Rising during the selection process, while the developer's payments to her husband were not disclosed to the public through timely lobbying filings.
The San Diego Ethics Commission subsequently fined Midway Rising and related entities $5,000 for filing required expenditure lobbying reports late.
The commission's findings emphasized that the missing disclosures deprived the public, competing development teams and city officials of information that could have been relevant during significant stages of the selection process.
The developer's attorney self-reported the violations after conducting an internal compliance review, a factor considered in resolving the matter.
The payments and late disclosures were not evidence of bribery, but they exposed a network of political consulting, organized labor advocacy and development interests that was not fully visible to the public when the city made its decision.
Additional questions arose when the composition of the development team changed after its selection.
In 2023, The Kroenke Group acquired a controlling ownership interest in Midway Rising, with reporting indicating its stake would increase to as much as 95 percent once construction begins.
The arrangement brought considerable financial resources to the project, but also raised questions about the extent to which the team ultimately controlling the redevelopment differed from the one initially presented to city officials.
The development proposal itself also changed.
A previously proposed 200-room hotel was eliminated, while 250 homes originally designated for middle-income households were converted to market-rate units. Developers attributed those changes to site constraints and financing conditions, including a major sewer pipeline beneath the property.
Critics described the revisions as a retreat from commitments used to secure public support, while the development team maintained that the modified project remained financially viable and preserved its central affordable housing commitments.
The project's environmental and legal history has been equally contentious.
San Diego voters approved measures intended to remove the coastal height limit from the Midway District in both 2020 and 2022, but courts invalidated the measures over deficiencies in environmental review.
Rather than seek another public vote, project supporters pursued legislation in Sacramento.
In September 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 344, legislation authored by state Senator Akilah Weber Pierson that declares the Midway Rising environmental impact report sufficient for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act once the required certification conditions are met.
Supporters argued the legislation would prevent years of additional litigation and allow the development's housing and public improvements to move forward.
Opponents condemned the measure as special treatment for a politically connected development project, arguing that it undermined the legal challenges that had twice succeeded in court.
The law does not eliminate the project's environmental mitigation requirements, but it substantially limits certain avenues for challenging the adequacy of its environmental review.
Despite the November 9 approval, Midway Rising is not yet ready to break ground.
The developer must still secure financing, satisfy development milestones, obtain necessary permits and finalize the applicable ground lease arrangements.
A central piece of the financial structure involves establishing an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District, which could direct future property tax growth toward eligible infrastructure improvements.
The financing district will require additional government action, including participation by San Diego County. The City Council's November 9 vote initiated that process but did not complete it.
The existing Pechanga Arena is expected to remain in operation until its replacement is completed, and the interim arena lease currently extends through December 2031, subject to the terms governing an earlier transition.
For Kobey's, that timeline presents a cruel uncertainty. Construction may still be years away, but the business cannot wait until bulldozers arrive to determine whether it has somewhere to operate.
And San Diego County has already witnessed what can happen when a longstanding swap meet survives on temporary extensions while its property is prepared for redevelopment.
The Santee Swap Meet, another multigenerational outdoor marketplace, held its final market on August 30, 2026, after decades of operation at the former Santee Drive-In Theatre property on Woodside Avenue.
The drive-in itself closed at the end of 2023 after approximately 65 years, but the swap meet continued operating under temporary extensions while plans advanced to redevelop the property.
The site was acquired by North Palisade Partners, a Los Angeles-based industrial real estate developer, for a project known as Palisade Commerce Center.
The redevelopment calls for approximately 290,000 square feet of industrial buildings on the roughly 13.5-acre property, replacing a venue that had served East County families and bargain hunters for decades.
The swap meet had operated since 1982, making its closure another significant loss for San Diego County's shrinking collection of traditional outdoor marketplaces.
For vendors who relied on Santee, the disappearance of the marketplace meant losing not just a place to shop or socialize, but a relatively affordable location to conduct business.
Kobey's now faces the prospect of following a similar path: continuing operations through temporary lease arrangements while the property's redevelopment moves forward, without knowing whether a permanent replacement will ever materialize.
The circumstances of the two projects are different. Santee involved privately owned property, while Kobey's operates on city-owned land. That gives San Diego officials a more direct role in determining how existing uses are treated as redevelopment progresses.
It also makes the questions surrounding Kobey's more difficult for City Hall to avoid.
The city has negotiated a redevelopment agreement involving billions of dollars, complex financing arrangements, substantial affordable housing commitments and long-term control of public land. Yet one of the property's most established businesses is still publicly asking officials to help determine whether it can survive.
There are legitimate reasons to redevelop the Sports Arena site. San Diego desperately needs more housing, the existing arena is aging, and the Midway District contains large parcels of land that could support significantly more intensive development.
Preserving every existing use may not be practical, and there is no guarantee that a swap meet requiring extensive surface parking can coexist with the completed project's residential towers, entertainment facilities and public spaces.
But those constraints make early planning more important, not less.
Kobey's is not demanding that the city abandon Midway Rising, provide a free replacement property or exempt the business from applicable regulations. It is asking officials to recognize that the redevelopment has consequences for an existing community institution and to work with its operators before the available options disappear.
The stakes extend beyond the Kobey family.
For approximately 1,000 weekend vendors, Kobey's represents access to customers without the overhead of a conventional storefront. For thousands of shoppers, it remains a place to find affordable merchandise, secondhand goods and an increasingly rare form of neighborhood commerce.
For the family that built the business, it represents half a century of work and the possibility of passing that legacy to another generation.
Mayor Gloria celebrated the November 9 approval as a major achievement for San Diego, declaring that his administration had assembled the public and private partnerships necessary to transform the property.
But the measure of a successful redevelopment should extend beyond the number of apartments constructed, the size of a new arena or the financial returns promised to developers.
It should also include how the city treats the people and businesses already occupying the land.
Kobey's has survived 50 years of economic changes and 46 years at the Sports Arena. The family is not asking San Diego to stop growing. It is asking whether the city's vision of progress can accommodate an institution that helped make the Midway District a destination long before the first Midway Rising rendering appeared.
With the agreement approved but financing, construction schedules and ground leases still being finalized, city officials have an opportunity to address that question before another San Diego institution becomes a casualty of redevelopment.
Kobey's Swap Meet remains open Friday through Sunday, from 7am to 3pm, at 3500 Sports Arena Boulevard in San Diego's Midway District. Supporters can sign the family's petition calling for a plan to preserve Kobey's or visit kobeyswap.com for additional information.
Originally published on November 15, 2026.
