A $10 million gift from the McGrath Family Foundation has pushed San Diego's long-planned Freedom Park closer to reality, but organizers still need to raise about $20 million before the 10-acre veterans park on Navy Pier can be finished. The park, now officially named Mcgrath Freedom Park at Burnham Navy Pier, has a projected cost of $77 million — up from an initial $42 million estimate and a later $65 million figure floated two years ago.
A Two-Decade Debt Finally Gets Paid
According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, the USS Midway Museum has secured $57 million in fundraising commitments so far, with the Port of San Diego contributing nearly $12 million toward the project. The park traces its origin to a requirement from the California Coastal Commission in the 2000s, which mandated a public park to offset the visual impacts and view blockages caused by the USS Midway when the carrier was first berthed at Navy Pier, per the same account. As Hoodline previously reported, port commissioners approved a contract on February 13, 2024, to demolish the long-vacant Building 11 headhouse that once stood at the pier's entrance, clearing the way for the park.
That regulatory pressure escalated in 2019, when the California Coastal Commission determined the port had violated the California Coastal Act by continuing to allow parking on Navy Pier, the newspaper's report notes. Two years earlier, in 2017, the commission had given the port and the museum a reprieve conditional on building a 7,840-square-foot public viewing deck and pedestrian walkways — improvements that never happened, according to the same reporting.
Naming Rights Reflect a Family's Wartime Legacy
The McGrath Family Foundation, based in San Diego, made its $10 million donation in honor of C.W. McGrath, who served in the Navy's harbor operations within the Eleventh Naval District during World War II along the San Diego Bay waterfront starting in 1939 and later became one of Southern California's largest engineering contractors during the 1970s and 1980s. Laurie McGrath, who co-founded the foundation with Carlee McGrath, said she was honored to participate in Freedom Park to honor her father's memory, per the Union-Tribune. The foundation has also supported UC San Diego Health, Sharp HealthCare, and causes benefiting children, women and animals.
Jack McGrory, who is co-chairing the fundraising campaign alongside Tom Sudberry, called Laurie McGrath's donation transformational for the campaign, according to the same report. McGrory and Sudberry also donated $5 million together toward the park, the newspaper reported. Sudberry served as a naval aviator during the Vietnam War.
Federal and Institutional Dollars Add Up
Beyond the McGrath and McGrory-Sudberry gifts, the campaign has drawn support from multiple directions. U.S. Representative Scott Peters secured $2 million in federal Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Project Funding earmarked for the park's construction, according to the Port of San Diego. In January 2025, the USS Midway Foundation also launched a $5 million gift-matching campaign tied to renaming part of the site “Freedom Park at Burnham Navy Pier” in honor of philanthropist Malin Burnham, as reported by Times of San Diego.
The financing structure rests on a 2022 memorandum of understanding that split responsibilities between the two lead agencies. Under that agreement, the Port of San Diego covered $11.7 million in structural piling repairs beneath the century-old pier, while the USS Midway Museum took on demolition, pier reinforcement and park construction costs. The port has since completed repairs and reinforcement of more than 250 aging piles under Navy Pier, according to the Union-Tribune's reporting.
What the Finished Park Will Look Like
The new portion of Freedom Park covers about 5.7 acres and will extend from the west end of Navy Pier around the Midway to the Bob Hope Memorial by 2028. Planned features include large lawn areas, a native plants garden, a Parade of Veterans amphitheater, interactive play structures, seating, an area devoted to the history of Navy Pier, the Midway and San Diego Bay, and a 32-foot-wide promenade along the pier's northern edge. The broader 10-acre park is expected to become the largest public park on the West Coast honoring veterans and their families, per the newspaper's report.
Scott Chadwick said the park will provide a place to reflect on the courage, sacrifice and legacy of people who served in the United States, according to the Union-Tribune. Freedom Park is being developed jointly by the USS Midway Museum and the Port of San Diego, and park development on Navy Pier is expected to begin in early 2027 with completion targeted for 2028. As Hoodline reported in September 2024, early demolition work by AMG Demolition under a $7.4 million contract had already begun clearing Building 11 to open up unobstructed bay views ahead of construction.
Port officials, per David Koontz, say the project still needs to raise about $20 million to close the remaining funding gap before the 2028 target can be met. Whether that final stretch of fundraising keeps pace with the construction timeline remains an open question for the coalition of donors, veterans groups and public agencies behind the decades-long effort.
