The $8 million plan to revive a once-popular venue and community center, ‘boarded up for all these years’
Article by David Garrick | Read full article in the San Diego Union-Tribune
Local officials have an $8 million plan to revive Mira Mesa’s once-popular Epicentre, a former concert venue and teen center that has become a rundown eyesore since it was largely abandoned eight years ago.
Officials say the Epicentre’s revival will be part of a wider boost to the area; work is also expected to begin soon on $40 million in long-awaited upgrades to nearby Mira Mesa Community Park, including an aquatics complex and skate park.
“Mira Mesa is one of the most important and ethnically diverse communities in San Diego, and it’s been terribly underinvested for a really long time,” said County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, who is spearheading the revival efforts. “I’m super excited for us to make this happen.”
While the revived Epicentre would offer programming and activities for people of all ages, it would be reserved for teens from 3 to 7 p.m. on weekdays and from 1 to 6 p.m. on weekends.
Programs, which would be geared for young people from ages 10 to 18, are slated to include tutoring, mentoring, career counseling, recreation and performing and visual arts.
Lawson-Remer credited the community with making the Epicentre revival possible, explaining that she sought guidance through neighborhood surveys and other outreach efforts for how to spend county infrastructure money.
“It came from dozens — maybe hundreds — of people in the community asking for something like this,” she said. “Because Mira Mesa is the center of the county, this could serve the region.”