The San Diego Animal Sanctuary and Farm in Alpine is fighting to keep its gates open once again. Back in 2023, we introduced you to the founder and executive director Agnes Barrelet, who explained the difficulty they were experiencing after heavy rains and the high costs taking a toll on them.

“Inflation just hammered us its basically putting us on our knees.”

Back in 2015, Agnes turned her passion into a reality at the animal sanctuary. For 10 years, she’s given the more 200 rescued animals a second chance at life in the open space of Alpine.

“I found this magical place and, it was just meant for it.”

Now, they face a similar challenge as before.

“I ran out of funds. I was the one that was funding,” she explains.

Barrelet also explains she might be the last hope some of them have.

“The animals that we have, they are not like in great shape or great health or they have issues. They are not the perfect breeding animal, that you find on the market.”

Barrelet says she spends at least $60,000 a month.

“So that’s why we need help. We have to find a home for them and if we don’t find a home they will be euthanized — there is no easy solution.”

But even now with the sanctuary’s back up against the wall, her spirit still remains strong to be the space these animals need.

“We don’t have any reserves and I built everything and I planned to be self sustainable sooner. And we have more visitors than before but still, we still don’t have enough visitors to actually cover our costs.”

She emhasizes nothing is going to stop her from trying.

“I will save the sanctuary. I always will find a way, but I just can’t do it alone.”

If you’d like to help you can click here.

Rain is coming to replace the mild, dry weather, at least temporarily, forecasters said Thursday.

The latest predictions have showers lasting through the end of the week before skies clear up again on Saturday.

“The most widespread rainfall is expected to spread southward across the area late tonight and Friday,” said the National Weather Service in its local forecast discussion.

“Drier for the weekend into early next week. Daytime temperatures will be a little warmer for the weekend, then cooler for early next week.”

Periods of gusty winds are expected on county desert and mountain slopes into deserts locally in the afternoons and evenings through Friday night.

Mountains will see partly cloudy conditions this week, with some fog and rain and highs in the upper 50s to low 60s. Deserts should also see cloudy conditions, with light winds, chances for mild showers, and highs in the upper 40s to mid-50s.

The coast is expected to see foggy and partly cloudy conditions through the week, with light wind showers by mid-week, some overnight rain by Friday, and highs in the mid-60s.

Thursday’s San Diego surf forecast includes a moderate-risk rip current, with surf from 1 to 3 feet, sets to 4 feet on west-facing beaches and west swell from 280 degrees.

No hazardous marine conditions are expected through Friday.

City News Service contributed to this report.

A sprawling residential plaza in downtown San Diego has traded hands in one of the largest apartment deals in the city’s history.

Greystar sold the 718-unit San Diego residential plaza, which includes a 35-story high-rise and two mid-rise buildings, for $309 million to MG Properties. The deal is the third-largest apartment deal in the city’s history, and is the biggest sale there since 2020, according to MG. The property, dubbed Park 12 – The Collection in Downtown San Diego, also contains 43,000 square feet of retail space. The tower’s most recent assessed value was for $264.2 million, per property records.

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Eastdil Secured’s Joseph Smolen and Geoff Boler represented Charleston, S.C.-based Greystar in the deal, while MG Properties represented itself. Eastdil’s Greg Stampley and Lee Redmond arranged $168 million in Fannie Mae (FNMA) financing for the purchase, according to a MG Properties spokesperson. 

Greystar built the 438-unit tower, at 100 Park Plaza, in 2018 within the Ballpark Village master-planned neighborhood adjacent to Petco Park, the San Diego Padres’ professional baseball stadium. The two mid-rise buildings, at 101 Park Plaza and 201 Park Boulevard, were completed around the base of the tower the following year, together totaling 280 units. 

“As a San Diego-based company, we are very familiar with the dynamics of the city and believe it has tremendous opportunity for growth in the coming years,” Jeff Gleiberman, president of MG Properties, said in a statement. “We believe this is an exceptional opportunity to acquire one of San Diego’s most iconic properties.”

Representatives for Greystar did not immediately respond to requests for more information. 

MG was recently involved in one of the largest multifamily sales across California in 2024 as well, though as the seller. The company in December sold Preserve at Melrose, a 410-unit complex in Vista, about 42 miles north of Downtown San Diego, to Mesirow for $185 million. MG had acquired the property in 2017 from Trammell Crow for $134 million.

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.