Where does Point Loma gather between early October and mid-November? Look at the dates on this season's calendar and a pattern shows. Most of the events happen on land that was once closed. Some of it was a naval training base. Some was a coastal defense installation. The rest belongs to a private yacht club or a university campus. Over the decades, nearly all of that ground has been opened to the public and given a second use.

The exception is a seven-acre hilltop at the northwestern end of Liberty Station, facing Rosecrans Street. Its 1920s officers' quarters were supposed to be a finished hospitality complex by this past summer. As of late August, work on them had not started.

Seven dates, five kinds of repurposed ground

These are the dated public events the research turned up for October and November, in order:

1. Friday, October 9, 7:30 p.m. Navy Band Southwest's Brass Quintet plays a free concert at Crill Performance Hall on the Point Loma Nazarene University campus, part of PLNU's Cultural Event Series.
2. Saturday, October 10, 4 to 9 p.m. Moniker General throws its 10th-anniversary party at 2860 Sims Road in Liberty Station.
3. Monday, October 19, 5 to 9 p.m. The Point Loma Association holds "Hollywood on the Harbor," its annual fundraising dinner and auction, at Kona Kai San Diego Resort.
4. Thursday, October 22, 5 to 8 p.m. San Diego Yacht Club hosts the 15th annual Taste of Point Loma, with food and drink vendors from the Point Loma community.
5. Sunday, October 25, noon to 4 p.m. Halloween at the Station fills Ingram Plaza at 2751 Dewey Road. It is free and includes a costume contest, a DJ, a car show, inflatables and trick-or-treating.
6. Saturday, November 7. Cabrillo National Monument opens its military bunker at 10 a.m. and leads guided walking tours at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
7. Sunday, November 15, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. On Cabrillo's Open Tower Day, half-hour guided tours climb the lighthouse tower. Tickets are first-come, first-served, and the tours depend on the weather.

Two of those dates are inside Liberty Station, the 361-acre former Naval Training Center. The city took it over in 1997 and began turning it into an arts and commercial district. Two more take place at a national monument whose November program includes a military bunker. The concert brings a Navy ensemble to a university stage. Even the calendar's most food-focused evening is hosted by a yacht club.

Some organizer pages list a day and month but no year. Cabrillo's general calendar page also carries a "last updated" footer from 2024. Confirm the October 9, October 19 and November 7 details with the hosts before you go.

The part of Liberty Station that hasn't reopened

Halloween at the Station takes place in Ingram Plaza, in the busy center of the old base. Up the slope, toward Rosecrans, sits the area the Union-Tribune described in August as "little visited by the public." It holds four officers' quarters from the 1920s, an abandoned gatehouse near the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center, and what remains of formal gardens that once hosted galas for visiting dignitaries and diplomats.

Ryan Thorsen, who bought and refreshed Mister A's in 2022, is leading a plan to reopen the site as The Admiral at Naval Training Center. Thorsen lives in Point Loma. He told Times of San Diego how the idea started:

"I was going to Liberty Station all the time and driving by it on my way to work questioning why nobody did anything with these particular acres. The land is overgrown. And the houses on it, which were occupied by admirals and officers, are in disrepair. I decided that I'd be the guy to unravel this one."

The original budget was $15 million, with completion targeted for summer 2026. As of the Union-Tribune's August 21 report, the budget had grown to $20 million and no ground had been broken. Thorsen said financing was nearly secured and he expected to break ground before the end of 2026. A month earlier, Times of San Diego had reported shovels expected "by early fall." The August report is the most recent status update on the project.

Why the hilltop is the hardest piece

According to the people involved, the delay has less to do with the buildings than with what it takes to get approval to reuse them. Lisa Johnson, CEO of the Arts District Liberty Station, which oversees 26 of the 45 historic buildings at Liberty Station, told the Union-Tribune that several developers before Thorsen got "pretty far down the road" before deciding the site was "just too heavy a lift."

Christopher Bittner of OBR Architecture has been Liberty Station's project architect since the city took over the base. He gave a plainer explanation. When he did the first Arts District buildings, he said, the city staff had history with the project, but "most of those people are gone now, so it's a learning process all over again." On getting city sign-off he added, "it was surprising because it's four houses. They're not complicated."

One more step remains. The Arts District expects to sign a key lease with the city in the coming months. Christina Bibler, who heads the city's Economic Development Department, said she hopes to bring a proposed lease for the site to the City Council before the end of the year.

Once that is done, the schedule runs in phases. The gardens, parking and three of the officers' quarters would open in fall 2027. The event venue would follow a few months later, and the gatehouse would come last, with everything finished by the end of 2028. Times of San Diego reported plans for about 200 parking spaces, with both self-parking and valet. The project's own website still lists an older Spring–Summer 2027 completion date. The August timeline is the more recent one.

What each house is meant to become

Each building in the plan is tied to a different era of the Navy's time on the site, which ran from 1923 to 1997. Bittner told Times of San Diego that the project counts as rehabilitation under federal guidelines for historic properties, which allows some changes to the designated structures. All five buildings are to be repainted, re-roofed and given new electrical and plumbing systems.

• Quarters D is the only house that has already been renovated, and it currently has a paying tenant. It would become an all-day market with a 1950s feel, including a wine bar, a bakery and a floral shop, plus prepared food for picnics on the grounds. Designer Jason St. John of Bells + Whistles grew up in Point Loma and wanted to draw on the neighborhood's Portuguese fishing families with what he called "a Portuguese-style mercado."
• Quarters C would become a game room with a 1960s counterculture theme: pool tables, jukeboxes, vinyl booths and wood paneling, with bocce and cornhole outside.
• The signature restaurant would seat 162 and take its design from the World War II period. Thorsen has narrowed 72 possible names to two but has not revealed either. He describes an "approachable upscale" American menu drawn from Point Loma's fishing heritage, using herbs and citrus grown in the on-site gardens. Its kitchen, in a separate building, is the only new construction in the complex.
• The event venue is in the complex's only two-story building and is designed around the 1920s. Its lawns would host weddings, and upstairs there would be a small two-bedroom suite available to wedding couples.

The garden may matter most to people nearby. "Right now, it's trashed," Bittner told Times of San Diego. "But there are old stone walkways and fountains, some you can see. We will be saving all of it." Thorsen described the approach to the Union-Tribune this way: "I'm not trying to come in with my own veneer. I'm trying to let the history design it."

The calendar a year from now

If the phased schedule holds, fall 2027 is the first season a Point Loma calendar could include picnics in the restored officers' gardens, with the city skyline in view from the high ground. Before that, three things need to happen: the lease has to reach the City Council, financing has to close, and construction has to start. For now, the next listed public event on Point Loma's former military land is the Navy Band Southwest Brass Quintet at Crill Performance Hall on Friday, October 9, at 7:30 p.m.

Reusing a historic building depends on the people who look after it, and that applies to a single home as much as to the officers' quarters on Rosecrans. Hernholm Group has handled more than 150 sales of historically designated homes. We follow projects like The Admiral because what happens on these sites shapes Point Loma's future. If you'd like quiet access to architecturally significant properties before they reach the open market, ask us about exclusive listings.