Redevelopment, San Diego style: The limits of public-private partnerships

Abstract

Fiscally strapped local governments have increasingly turned to public-private partnerships (P3s) for redevelopment assistance, empowering private actors to exercise functions typically performed by the public sector. While P3s can enhance project funding and completion, they create the possibility of agency loss, that is, public means-tax dollars, public powers, and other resources-being diverted toward private purposes. Using a principal- agent approach, the authors examine an ambitious and widely heralded P3 in San Diego to build a downtown ballpark and encourage private investment in surrounding neighborhoods. The authors identify a set of political, institutional, and partnership conditions exacerbating agency loss and thwarting redevelopment's public mission.