Plans Announced to Blow Up Candlestick Park Next Year to Make Room for Shopping Center
It hosted two World Series, The Catch and the Beatles' last concert. Now it looks like Candlestick Park will go out with a blast next year to make way for a shopping center.
Plans are to blow up the 69,000-seat stadium with a 30-second implosion, possibly within weeks of the 49ers' final touchdown next season. San Francisco's Recreation and Park Department, which owns Candlestick, had feared it would be stuck spending millions to mothball the 53-year-old structure until Lennar Corp. was ready to build something on the land.
Lennar, however, figures there's no point in waiting. "The best thing for our development and the neighborhood is not to have that hulking building sitting there empty," said Kofi Bonner, president of Lennar Urban, which plans a retail, residential and office complex for the stadium site and the former Hunters Point Shipyard.
The city couldn't be happier with the plan for the dynamite spectacular. "Everything has a life, and Candlestick has exceeded it," said Phil Ginsburg, head of Rec and Park. Plans for a side-by-side stadium and mall at Candlestick evaporated after the Niners announced in 2006 that they were building a $1 billion stadium in Santa Clara. Bonner said rubble from the Stick will be used to grade the site for an 800,000-square-foot shopping district similar to the one in downtown Walnut Creek. There are also plans for a 3,000- to 4,000-seat arena that could accommodate small concerts, house the San Francisco Bulls ice hockey team and maybe even host pro women's basketball.
In the meantime, the city will be taking suggestions for a suitable Stick send-off before the big blast.
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