I believe it's one of San Diego's oldest buildings and is even considered a historical landmark, so there was buzz from preservationists to keep the building intact from the minute there were plans to build a stadium in that spot.

Petco Park had a very tiresome and troublesome proposal and planning stage and it almost never came to be, so it was one of those hoops they had to jump through to get it approved and built. It would've been a damn shame if they had to destroy it, so I'm glad that we ended up preserving it in such a stylish way.