Downtown San Bernardino


Downtown San Bernardino is a district in the city of San Bernardino, California, in San Bernardino County, United States. It is home to city and county government buildings, and to the city's central business district. The downtown area of San Bernardino is home to multiple diplomatic missions for the Inland Empire, being one of only four California cities with multiple consulates. The governments of Guatemala and Mexico have established their consulates in the civic center. Downtown San Bernardino is bounded by I-215 to the west, Waterman Avenue to the east, Baseline Street to the north, and Mill Street to the south.
The San Bernardino City Council is considering another redevelopment effort. The city’s Economic Development Agency presented the council with a draft of the Downtown Core Vision / Action Plan in 2009. – a guide for revitalizing downtown San Bernardino for the next 10 years. The plan is the culmination of a year of research, community participation, and planning led by the city’s EDA and the urban planning firm EDAW. The city is discussing the construction of a new government center/civic plaza that will contain an iconic 24 story tower. On May 11, 2014 the county of San Bernardino opened a 12-story, 200-foot-tall courthouse known as the San Bernardino Justice Center. The county will consolidate many county-wide court functions in the new structure, which is the tallest building in San Bernardino and the Inland Empire.

Parks

Seccombe Lake

Seccombe Lake Park includes a lake named after a former Mayor of San Bernardino. It is located at the corner of 5th Street and Sierra Way. On December 10, 2015, federal authorities searched the lake after receiving a tip that the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorist attack visited on the day of the attack. A dive team searched for evidence but nothing relevant was found.

Entertainment district

Downtown is home to three performing arts venues and a movie theater, the most for any central business district in the Inland Empire. The city is planning a new district along Fourth Street. The key aspect of the plan is to make the area around the California Theater and future Regal San Bernardino Theater Square Stadium 14 site on Fourth Street as an area for entertainment and dining. Dining is all that is needed to make this into a reality, as Regal Stadium 14 opened in the spring of 2012.

Opening of Regal Entertainment Group

Downtown San Bernardino had a large, luxurious, two story theater until it closed in September 2008. Maya Cinemas was expected to open at the old site of the CinemaStar on February 27, 2009, however it is did fail to do so, and plans for a downtown San Bernardino theater were scratched. As of January 2011, Regal Entertainment Group was in negotiations with the city of San Bernardino to open a theater in the former Cinema Star site. In November 2011, the city of San Bernardino approved a negotiation with Regal has now taken over/rehabilitated the theater, which opened on June 29, 2012 with RPX under the name of Regal San Bernardino Theater Square Stadium 14 & RPX.

Norman F. Feldheym Central Library

The Norman F. Feldheym Central Library is the flagship of the San Bernardino Public Library system. It opened on September 30, 1985, and is the city's fifth central library building since the first one was operated out of a rented house in 1891. Architects Gregory Villanueva and Oscar Arnoni designed the $6 million facility, which was named in honor of the late Rabbi Norman F. Feldheym. The library provides a number of cultural enrichment programs for youth and adults in the local community. Partnering with the San Bernardino City Unified School District, the library supports a community Reading Festival for third-graders and their families. The library also sponsors an annual book fair at Cal State San Bernardino, reading clubs, and an "Academy of Public Scholars" critical review club devoted to works of Continental philosophy.

City Hall

City Hall is a six-story building designed in 1963 by César Pelli to reflect the urban environment around it. Completed in 1972, the City Hall is modernist in style, has curtain walls, and is clad entirely in glass, with slim aluminum mullions. Parts of the building are raised off the ground by pilotis.

Downtown universities

was a private, non-profit sports business university in the downtown area which has remained unaccredited since its inception in 2006; it is seeking accreditation. It was granted approval to operate from the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education of the State of California. It closed in 2016.

Transportation

Transit Center

The Downtown Transit Center is located on a five-acre site located on the southwest corner of Rialto Avenue and E Street near the San Manuel Stadium. The Transit Center will connect the Mountain Areas and the High Desert with the rest of Southern California, via Omnitrans, the Mountain Area Regional Transit Authority and the Victor Valley Transit Authority. It serves as a transfer point for bus routes the county, with future connections to the sbX Bus Rapid Transit system, which will connect Verdemont/California State University, San Bernardino to the Veterans Hospital in Loma Linda and the Downtown San Bernardino Passenger Rail System; which is a one-mile Metrolink extension from the Santa Fe Depot, and the Redlands Passenger Light-Rail Project with stops en route to the University of Redlands. Construction began in June 2013 with minimal service opening in April 2014 while a fully operational center opening in September 2014.

San Bernardino International Airport

The San Bernardino International Airport is expected to provide both domestic and international air services. It will provide growth to the city and the Inland Empire. Buses are expected to serve the airport, which lies two to three miles from downtown. The airport finished major construction, however there are no current commercial flight airlines occupying the terminals.

Buildings

Main buildings

Other buildings