In 1994, businessman Sol Price became interested in City Heights after reading a newspaper article about a Vons grocery store closing at 4310 Landis Street. For prospective; at this time City Heights had the highest crime rate in San Diego County, gang activity and drug dealing were rampant, housing was substandard and public services were lacking. Price and former City Councilman William D. Jones had already been working toward opening a retail store in an inner city neighborhood in San Diego.
Believing the former Vons store might be a good site for their new venture, they soon learned the City of San Diego had already secured the location for a new police substation but didn’t have financing in place. That led to Price forging an agreement with San Diego City Manager Jack McGrory. Price would lend the City money for the building construction if the City agreed to repay the loan in a timely manner and create a facility that also housed a gymnasium for police employees and the public to use, public meeting rooms and windows on the street side of the substation. The purpose was to make the substation as community friendly as possible.
While developing the police substation, which would later become the Mid-City Division, Price and Jones agreed Price would focus on non-profit work in City Heights while Jones would focus on for profit real estate development.
The remodel took approximately two years. When the Mid-City Division opened in 1996 its unique design was a dramatic departure from the standard SDPD substation scheme adopted in the early 1980’s that shaped the look of the Eastern, Western and Southeastern substations.
Captain Clifford Resch (First)
10/21/1995 - 06/20/1997
Captain John L. Madigan
06/21/1997 - 10/01/1999
Captain James McGinley
10/2/1999 to 12/26/2001
Captain Mary Cornicelli
12/27/2001 to 7/23/2004
Captain Bob Kanaski
7/24/2004 to 8/11/2006
Captain Guy Swanger
8/12/2006 to 8/22/2008
Captain Lawrence McKinney
8/23/2008 to 10/29/2011
Captain Todd Jarvis
10/30/2011 to 3/14/2014
Captain David Nisleit
3/15/2014 to 3/28/2015
Captain Christopher McGrath
3/29/2015 to 3/12/2016
Captain Michael Hastings
3/13/2016 to 2/10/2017
Captain Thomas Underwood
2/11/2007 to 3/9/2018
Captain W. Todd Griffin
3/10/2018 to 06/01/2019
Captain Anthony Dupree
06/01/2019 - 05/22/2021
Captain Christopher Knighten
05/22/2021 - 01/20/2024
Captain Shawn Takeuchi
01/20/2024 - 08/02/2024
Captain Martha Sainz
08/03/2024 - Present
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