Padres development team backs out of deal to buy, redevelop Tailgate Park

The city of San Diego’s deal to sell the Tailgate Park parking lot east of Petco Park to a development team led by the San Diego Padres, stalled in court for 3.5 years, has collapsed.

Thursday, Tailgate Development LLC — a partnership between real estate developer Tishman Speyer, the Padres and real estate investment firm Ascendant Capital Partners — formally notified the city in a one-sentence letter that it was canceling the sales contract, or what’s known as a disposition and development agreement, or DDA.

“As discussed, developer is hereby electing to terminate the above-referenced DDA effective immediately,” states the letter, signed by Tishman Speyer Senior Managing Director Paul Galiano and obtained by the Union-Tribune.

The cancellation comes just weeks after self-described government watchdog group Project for Open Government filed the paperwork required to appeal a San Diego Superior Court judge’s decision in late June upholding the legality of the City Council-approved transaction.

The development team cited the ongoing lawsuit and a hostile real estate environment as the reasons behind its decision to walk away from the purchase of the 5.25-acre site for $35.1 million.

“Given the likelihood of protracted litigation as well as significant changes in market conditions since our project was approved in 2022, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue pursuit of our Tailgate Park development,” team spokesperson Bud Perrone...