Walk under the Hillcrest Pride flag this month and you will still find orange fencing, exposed conduit, and a construction crew working around the base of a flagpole that has anchored more parades, vigils, and impromptu gatherings than any other spot in the neighborhood. Eighteen months ago, the city and the Hillcrest Business Association told residents this would be finished by Pride. It wasn't. The timeline now points to 2027.
Meanwhile, a few blocks away, a Vietnamese restaurant group opened its newest location in late July, a cookie shop from New York moved onto University Avenue, and 70,000 people showed up for CityFest on August 9 like they do every year, park or no park. That gap between the public promise and the private pace is the actual story of Hillcrest this summer. The neighborhood was told to wait for something. It didn't.
The Promise That Set the Clock
The Normal Street Promenade broke ground in January 2025 with real ceremony. Mayor Todd Gloria, Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, and State Senate President pro Tem Emerita Toni Atkins all showed up. Ben Nicholls, the Hillcrest Business Association's executive director, told NBC 7 at the time that the project would give the neighborhood "this expanded gathering space with the Pride flag in the middle of it," and that if things went to plan, the community would have its park within a year.
The stakes were specific. Hillcrest has no public park. The $26.8 million project was pitched as the fix: bike lanes, a playground that would count as the neighborhood's first, benches, and a small café built inside a donated MTS trolley car. To make room, the Hillcrest Farmers Market, which had operated at Normal and Lincoln since 1997, moved around the corner to University Avenue between Herbert Street and Park Boulevard, a shift meant to last through the construction window and then some.
Where the Clock Actually Stands
By February 2026, the framing had already started to slip. Nicholls told Times of San Diego the plan was still to finish before that year's Pride event, but businesses adjacent to the construction site were describing something closer to survival mode. "There's sort of a hold your breath, it's going to get better kind of approach," he said at the time.
It didn't get better on schedule. A Times of San Diego report from late June 2026 confirmed what the fencing already suggested: completion is now expected in 2027, not 2026, and the project's cost has crept toward nearly $28 million. A July 21 site tour did show real progress. Reporters and HBA staff walked through seat-wall benches modeled on North Park Mini Park and Piazza della Famiglia in Little Italy, custom light poles wired with speakers and banner stanchions, and a run of textured metal bordering the bike lane, a detail designers worked out after consulting a school for the blind and visually impaired in Northern California. Crews also confirmed the fix to Hillcrest's disconnected, 100-year-old storm drains, the ones responsible for the flooding locals nicknamed "Lake Hillcrest." That part of the work was never glamorous, but it's arguably the most consequential piece of the whole project.
Here's how the promise and the reality actually line up:
| Milestone | What Was Promised | Where It Stands (August 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Groundbreaking | January 2025 | Completed on schedule |
| Farmers market relocation | Temporary, through construction | Still on University Ave, 19 months in |
| Park completion | "Within a year" (Jan 2025), then "before Pride" (Feb 2026) | Now expected in 2027 |
| Project cost | $26.8 million | Nearly $28 million as of June 2026 |
| Ongoing maintenance | Community-funded | Estimated $600,000 a year, still unresolved |
That last line matters as much as the delay itself. Nicholls has said the city's position is straightforward: it will build the park, but the neighborhood has to pay to keep it running. University of San Diego business students have been drafting funding models for the HBA, and nothing is settled yet.
What the Wait Has Cost Next Door
The businesses closest to the construction zone haven't had the luxury of waiting patiently. Cellar Hand estimates construction caused a 25 to 30 percent reduction in revenue. Hillcrest Brewing Company saw business drop 20 percent last year, and managing partner Joey Arruda described unexpected water and electricity outages severe enough that the brewery had to close on at least one weekday because it couldn't legally operate without running water.
Arruda's response was to ask the city for permission to extend his patio 15 feet, betting that more outdoor seating now would pay off once the plaza next door is finished and drawing foot traffic. Hillcrest Brewing Company also started a two-for-one spaghetti special on Wednesdays, a small, local adjustment that says more about how the neighborhood is actually coping than any city press release does.
The Market That Never Waited
While the promenade slipped its own deadline, the thing it was built to house kept growing anyway. The Hillcrest Farmers Market, which opened in 1997 with just 27 vendors, now draws over 10,000 visitors a week and hosts more than 175 vendors, still every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., rain or shine. Nicholls has said the temporary University Avenue site, with its wider aisles and higher visibility on a busier street, actually pulled in more vendors, not fewer, since the move. What was supposed to be a placeholder location turned into evidence that the market didn't need the park to succeed. It needed Sunday mornings and a street wide enough to hold a crowd.
The Restaurants That Didn't Read the Timeline
Nobody told Hillcrest's restaurant scene to wait for the plaza either. Origen, a coastal Mexican concept from co-founders Franco Mestre and Sebastian Berho, opened March 2 in the former XOXO Retro Neighborhood Diner space at 3831 Park Blvd. Saigon Alley Kitchen & Bar, the newest concept from the family behind Pho Ca Dao Vietnamese Kitchen, landed at 3687 5th Ave toward the end of July, in a space that had previously housed The Tractor Room. Owner Duke Huynh built the menu around Pho Ca Dao's classic dishes plus a full bar, something none of the group's other locations offer.
Smaller openings tell the same story. Pastiamo, a build-your-own pasta concept on University Avenue, made its debut at April's Taste of Hillcrest food crawl. Schmackary's, the New York cookie shop known for an aggressive flavor rotation, moved onto University Avenue earlier this year. Frenchy's Hideout, Michael Simpson's California-meets-France wine bar at 142 W University Ave, opened in spring 2025 and returned for its second consecutive Taste of Hillcrest in April. None of these businesses waited for a ribbon cutting at Pride Plaza. They opened into a neighborhood that was, by every visible measure, still under construction.
The Weekend That Happened Anyway
CityFest is the clearest proof that Hillcrest's calendar doesn't run on the promenade's clock. The street festival returned for its 42nd year on August 9, stretching seven city blocks from the Hillcrest sign at University Avenue down Fifth to Pennsylvania Avenue. The Hillcrest Business Association put attendance at roughly 70,000 people, more than four times the neighborhood's own population of about 16,000. This year added a new wrinkle: a ticketed Mural Alley wine garden running from noon to 6 p.m., pouring 2-ounce tastings from Cork & Stem, Negociant Winery, and Pali Wine Co. for $10 to $40 a ticket. The unfinished park sat one block away, fenced, while the neighborhood's biggest annual event happened without it.
What This Means If You Live Here Now
The lesson isn't that the promenade doesn't matter. It's that Hillcrest's daily rhythm was never actually dependent on it finishing. The farmers market grew on a temporary street. New restaurants kept signing leases in a construction zone. CityFest didn't shrink. If you're weighing whether to wait for the park before you commit to this neighborhood in any way, the evidence says the wait isn't necessary. Hillcrest has been building its own momentum in parallel with the city's, not because of it.
What's worth watching instead is the maintenance question. A neighborhood that has to raise roughly $600,000 a year to keep its first public park running is going to lean harder on its business community, and that's where you'll see the next round of decisions get made, whether that's a new assessment district, a sponsorship model, or something the HBA hasn't proposed yet. Keep an eye on the Hillcrest Business Association's public updates if that affects how you think about the area long term.
If you're weighing what any of this means for your own plans in Hillcrest, whether you're thinking about buying here, selling here, or just want a clearer read on how a neighborhood like this actually holds value while it's mid-transformation, Markus Feldmann has spent years tracking exactly these kinds of shifts across San Diego's coastal and urban core. Request a Confidential Valuation to start a conversation grounded in what's actually happening on the ground, not just what was promised.
