San Diego’s historic Western Metal Supply Co. Building has seen its fair share of changes since opening in 1909. As a focal point of Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres, the building underwent another round of multi-million-dollar upgrades ahead of the 2025 season, giving fans improvements aplenty in the left field landmark.
Since Petco Park opened in 2004 the four-story brick building has served as home to the team store and a variety of fan experiences. The stadium’s entire orientation was designed to allow the corner of the building to serve as the foul pole. The 2025 season gives it all an upgrade, with an expansion to the Padres New Era Team Store, the Budweiser Loft and the Western Metal Rooftop.
The team store saw an increase in space by over 1,000 square feet with a more open floor plan and a doubling of the doors in and out and points of sale. “We were getting increasingly longer lines on gameday,” says Erik Greupner, Padres CEO. “We didn’t want fans to have to wait as long to get in.” One of the key features of the new team store is an updated hat rotunda, while the entire site was updated with new lighting and fixtures.
The renovation preserved the historic character of the building with wood beams and the original wood floors. “Everything we do with the historic building we want to be very respectful of the history of the building and show it off,” Greupner says, calling Petco Park a modern ballpark with history built in.
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On the same floor, the Entertainment Suite, located in the left field corner of the playing field, is an area for groups of 16 or more and now has an expanded exterior deck with additional field-facing seats, giving the suite an indoor-outdoor vibe.
A level above, the updated Budweiser Loft includes a renovated bar and updates in furniture, lighting and more. The loft features the original wood ceiling and the industrial feel of the building with “fun whimsical touches” throughout, Greupner says. When large groups aren’t fully renting out the loft, any fan with a ticket into the ballgame can access the space.
On the same level, a transformed Foul Pole Suite, which is on the left field foul pole and includes capacity for groups of 20 or more, features an indoor portion for food and catering and a unique outdoor area directly on the foul pole (there’s even a collection of photos of famous foul poles from throughout baseball decorating the suite).
A new grand staircase connects the Budweiser Loft directly to the fully renovated Western Metal Rooftop. The rooftop features a 4,000-square-foot raised deck that offers new sight lines to the playing field and increased capacity. “We completely renovated and transformed this space,” Greupner says.
The rooftop features new private restrooms and a covered trellis for both shade in the summer and overhead heating for cooler spring and falls games. Two new video boards were added to the site, but the showpiece of the rooftop—and something fans throughout the ballpark can enjoy—is a feature wall on the field-facing side that will light up for celebratory moments with 1,000 LED diode lights beneath the greenery and orb lighting around the giant “SD” logo.
“This is a very visible focal point in the ballpark,” Greupner says. “It is a great Instagrammable moment for fans to come up and check out the feature wall.”
Greupner says the goal of every project is to make Petco Park a 100-plus-year ballpark. “If we continue to maintain this ballpark,” he says, “we believe it can be an iconic ballpark like Wrigley Field or Fenway Park.” At least a small portion of the venue already has true 1909-era features.
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