Shoppers Swamp Big Birthday Party for Horton Plaza

Horton Plaza--a leading force in the revival of downtown San Diego--celebrated its first anniversary Saturday, complete with a 363-cubic-foot birthday cake and a traffic jam to attest to its popularity.

The 5 1/2-square-block shopping center opened Aug. 9, l985, to mixed reviews on its garish architecture and a number of doomsday predictions that customers would not brave the center city traffic and parking problems to shop downtown when abundant parking and the same stores were available at suburban shopping centers.

But developer Ernest Hahn, who is credited with bucking the trend of retail stores’ abandoning aging downtown areas, said the $140-million plaza has ranked in the top 10% in sales among his retail centers around the country since its opening.

San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor interrupted her Saturday schedule of three-minute audiences with the public to cut the first of an estimated 4,000 pieces of cake handed out to visitors.

The cake, which measured 11 feet by 11 feet by 3 feet, was topped by a strikingly real model of the shopping center in pastels. Crowds, attracted by the cake, live entertainment, a baby crawl contest and sales at many of the center’s 150 shops and stores, filled the parking garage to capacity two hours after the Saturday celebration began at noon.

The birthday cake was baked and decorated in a weeklong effort by Atlas Hotels chefs and was served to shoppers Saturday by the staff of U.S. Grant Hotel. The Horton Plaza anniversary celebration will continue with special events through Aug. 31.