Up the slope from the Rosecrans side of Liberty Station sit four 1920s officers' homes and an old gatehouse, on roughly seven acres that most visitors never walk through. In a recent report, the San Diego Union-Tribune described decaying Spanish Colonial buildings and old formal gardens reduced to "stretches of bare dirt strewn with weeds." Those gardens once hosted outdoor galas for visiting dignitaries.
Down on the promenades, the next eleven weeks are booked almost every weekend. Point Loma's fall happens on the campus's flat center, and the new arrivals there are moving into storefronts that already exist. The project that would actually change Liberty Station is the one on the hill. Its next step depends on a city lease, not on a restaurant's opening day.
Six dates, all on the flat part of the campus
Every major fall and holiday event on Liberty Station's published calendar is set somewhere along Dewey Road, Truxtun Road, or the plazas between them.
Date | Event | Where | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
Sat–Sun, Oct. 17–18 | Harvest on the Promenade | North Promenade, 2848 Dewey Road | 10 a.m.–8 p.m. Sat; 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Sun |
Sat, Oct. 24 | Latine Pride, free | Central Promenade, 2641 Truxtun Road | 2–7 p.m. |
Sun, Oct. 25 | Halloween at the Station, free | Ingram Plaza | Noon–4 p.m. |
Sun, Nov. 1 | Día de los Muertos celebration, free | San Diego Craft Collective, 2590 Truxtun Road | 10 a.m.–2 p.m. |
Nov. 19–Jan. 3 | Rady Children's Ice Rink | Legacy Plaza, near 2875 Dewey Road | 10 a.m.–10 p.m. daily |
Fri, Nov. 27 | Tree Lighting and Holiday Festivities | North Promenade and Vesper Venue | 5–9 p.m. |
Halloween at the Station is the busiest program of the stretch. Liberty Station's event page lists trick-or-treating, a costume contest, crafts, inflatables, and a car show in one four-hour block at Ingram Plaza. The ice rink runs longest. It opens the week before Thanksgiving and stays through the first weekend of January, but the rink's own site warns that hours can shift for holidays and weather. A rainy December evening is worth checking before you go.
Each of the six dates uses ground that has been finished and open for years, which is why the calendar can be this full. The newest additions to the campus follow the same pattern.
The newcomers moved into buildings that were already open
The openings of the past six months all moved into existing spaces in the Arts District, the market, or the restaurant row along Perry Road.
Grandson Steaks, 2690 Historic Decatur Road, Suite B. Axios San Diego reported that this Sonoran steakhouse opened in April. Eater San Diego's October update calls it an all-day steakhouse and butcher shop. Co-owner Roger Cañez is from Ensenada and has worked in San Diego restaurant retail for 20 years. He also owns Brasa Norte Steak & Tacos in National City. Times of San Diego reported his view that distributing the beef between California and Mexico helps keep prices affordable. The menu serves the steaks alongside seafood and Mexican-style dishes.
Sangucheria PSF, Booth 36, Liberty Public Market. The market's vendor page lists Peruvian sandwiches, rotisserie chicken, empanadas, and desserts, served 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. It doesn't give an opening date.
El Punto, 2885 Perry Road, Suite 102. This is the one still marked coming soon. The City Tacos team is converting the former El Jardin and Go Go Amigo space into an 8,800-square-foot Mexican restaurant. Patch reported plans for brunch, a kids' area, covered outdoor dining, and an enclosed dog park. The menu announced in an August listing on There San Diego includes locally caught seafood, ceviche, Michelada oysters, tiraditos, and five City Tacos favorites. That listing also said the restaurant would open in October 2026. As of today, the El Punto site still says "Coming Soon, Fall 2026," with no opening day or hours posted.
When El Punto does open, its dog park and kids' area will add a new kind of space to Perry Road. The building, the parking, and the foot traffic are already there. A restaurant opening in an existing building can slip a few weeks and still land this season. The hilltop project works on a much longer clock.
Why the hilltop moves on a different clock
The project is called The Admiral at Naval Training Center. Ryan Thorsen, owner of Mister A's, began raising money for it a couple of years ago. The Union-Tribune reported that he originally expected the $15 million project to be finished by summer 2026. As of the paper's August 21 report, the budget had grown to $20 million and the site still hadn't broken ground. Financing was nearly secured, and he expected to break ground before the end of the year.
The lease is the reason a promenade storefront and the hilltop run on such different timelines. The Arts District Liberty Station oversees 26 of the campus's 45 historic buildings. It told the paper it expected to sign a key lease with the city in the coming months, which would let the redevelopment go ahead. Christina Bibler, who heads the city's Economic Development Department, told the Union-Tribune she hopes to bring a proposed lease for the site to the City Council before the end of the year. Other developers have tried this site before. Lisa Johnson, CEO of the Arts District, told the paper that a couple of them got "pretty far down the road" before the work proved "just too heavy a lift."
Here is what the plan puts on the hill, according to the Union-Tribune's report:
- A two-story wedding venue and an upscale restaurant
- A game room and a speakeasy, each meant to evoke a different era of the Navy's presence
- Restored formal gardens around the original officers' homes
- A transformed version of the long-abandoned gatehouse near the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center
The buildings sit on high ground, so the complex is designed around panoramic city views. Most of the open space on the campus today is flat, so terraces facing the city would be new for Liberty Station.
What the phasing means for next fall's calendar
Thorsen laid out a sequence that starts once the project gets the go-ahead. First come the gardens, parking, and three of the officers' quarters, targeted for fall 2027. The event venue follows a few months later. The gatehouse comes last, with everything done by the end of 2028.
Run those dates forward and the Oct. 17 harvest weekend, the Nov. 27 tree lighting, and the ice rink's run into January all take place with the hilltop still closed off. If the lease reaches the City Council by December and ground breaks on schedule, fall 2027 is the earliest the gardens could open. A late lease pushes every date in that sequence back. The project's original summer 2026 finish date has already slipped, so a published phase date is a target, not a promise.
A nearby project has a firmer timeline. On Oct. 7, 2026, the city awarded a $725,790.92 contract to Jerusalem Construction for a new traffic signal at Rosecrans and Byron streets by Shelter Island. The city's construction contract list doesn't give a work schedule yet.
The next public step for the hilltop is a lease proposal on a City Council agenda, which Bibler hopes to see before December ends. That vote will set when the gardens above the Rosecrans side can open.
If you want help following how Liberty Station's changes affect your corner of the Point Loma peninsula, from El Punto's opening day to the lease vote on The Admiral, Emily Schaefer keeps close track of these developments and is happy to talk them through. Schedule a personalized consultation and we'll go through what's coming along Rosecrans and how it fits your plans.
