Compiled by Kelly Ryan and Paul Hughes
LAGUNA NIGUEL
Mission Lutheran Church is making progress on two buildings being added to its 3-acre campus at the corner of La Paz and Yosemite roads. The project is valued at $4.7 million. The first 10,271-square-foot building is set to house church offices, a music practice space, conference rooms and a nursery. The second building is a 7,096-square-foot fellowship hall. It will include offices and workrooms for a preschool and kindergarten, which now are in another campus building. Irvine-based Martinez/Kuch Architects designed the project. The church demolished its existing fellowship hall and two temporary buildings to make way for the new buildings. Construction began in August and should finish in September. San Clemente-based Consolidated Contracting Services Inc. is the general contractor.
LAGUNA HILLS
Construction is under way on a Nordstrom Rack to go into a remodeled building at Laguna Hills Mall. The 34,000-square-foot building previously was home to a Tower Records and a Good Guys. Plans were approved at the end of March and building started soon after. The Nordstrom Rack should open in September. The general contractor is Orange-based Richardson Group, which has worked with Nordstrom Inc. on stores in San Diego, Orange County and Santa Barbara.
MISSION VIEJO
An 11,600-square-foot retail building is going up at the corner of Alicia Parkway and Via Fabricante. Murrel Co. in Newport Beach manages the property and is talking with potential tenants. An older retail building was razed to make way for the new building. Construction, including 60 parking spaces, should finish in August. Irvine’s GMI Construction Services, formerly Alton Builders, is the general contractor.
SANTA ANA
Santa Ana-based Prime Urban is planning townhomes at East Santa Ana Boulevard and Minter Street. The company acquired the 16,000-square-foot site last year. Architect Studio 111 designed the project with 10 townhomes and two lofts. Plans went to the city late last year and groundbreaking is planned in the coming weeks. The lofts are set to be created in a 2,400-square-foot brick building. Sales could start a year from now.
ORANGE
A 6,064-square-foot Wells Fargo is going up in place of one that burned down at the same site on Tustin Avenue near Lincoln Avenue in early 2007. The city approved the project in November. The bank building is under construction. Utilities are going in and the foundation slab is going down in an existing center with fast food restaurants Chick-fil-A, In-N-Out and Del Taco as well as offices. The building is one story with drive-up and walk-up ATMs, parking and landscaping. The building is more to the south than the old one, creating more parking. The previous building was 6,600 square feet.
Tesco PLC’s Fresh & Easy is gutting an old Office Depot for its second store in Orange, set for a July opening. The site is in a 7.4-acre shopping center at Chapman Avenue near Tustin Avenue. The building is 15,520 square feet. Office Depot moved a couple miles up the street to a shuttered Ralphs grocery store. The Planning Commission approved the project in February. Fresh & Easy’s first store in Orange is a few miles west. The upscale convenience store is set to be the first to open after Tesco halted its expansion in April to retool its initial stores amid reports of less-than-expected sales. There are six Fresh & Easy stores in OC with more planned.
FULLERTON
Buildings are set to be completed by early September at a 200,000-square-foot shopping center at the corner of Euclid Street and Orangethorpe Avenue. Dubbed Orangethorpe Plaza, Newport Beach-based developer Lake Development Group is pouring footings and putting up buildings. Rite Aid, Fresh & Easy and a Washington Mutual branch have signed on, as has a Checkers fast food restaurant. The project is on 4.6 acres, owned by Frederickson Enterprises with a long-term lease by Lake, a housing developer in Northern California with a shopping center focus in the Orange County.
