San Diego's cargo lure: port hopes to draw cargo from crowded neighbors, but fights industrial property developers.(Maritime)

Freight defeated football not long ago at the Port of San Diego. That put a few points on the board for cargo in the ongoing battle for industrial waterfront property and boosted San Diego's efforts to compete against larger neighbors.

Private investors wanted to develop a pro football stadium where the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal sits, said Miguel Reyes, the authority's senior manager of trade development. However, those investors were blitzed at a port commission meeting July 6, where all but one of the 38 speakers on the issue favored keeping the diversified cargo facility intact, he said. Six of the seven port commissioners took the same view.

One speaker against the stadium was Richard Vortman, president of National Steel and Shipbuilding, who said his …