Compiled by Kelly Ryan, Paul Hughes
ANAHEIM
An apartment complex is going up at North Tustin Avenue and the Riverside (91) Freeway. Plans call for 312 apartments, a clubhouse and gym. The project is being built as four levels of apartments on top of two levels of underground parking, plus a street-level building with townhome-style units, some with connected garages. Thirty-one of the apartments are lofts with space for people who work at home. Irvine’s Sares-Regis Group is the developer. It acquired the land earlier this year and razed a warehouse on the site. The company’s Regis Contractors LP is the project’s general contractor. The architect is KTGY Group Inc. of Irvine. Urban Resource in Irvine performed grading and street improvements. Developers expect residents to move in by October.
FOUNTAIN VALLEY
Crews are readying a Walgreens store at Harbor Boulevard and Edinger Avenue. Santa Ana-based Red Mountain Retail Group Inc. bought the site from Smart & Final Inc. last year when that store closed. Construction on the Walgreens began in early summer. A Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market already is open at the site. The Walgreens is set to be 14,400 square feet with a drive-through pharmacy. It’s scheduled to open in May.
HUNTINGTON BEACH
A church near 17th Street and Main Street is wrapping up construction on a children’s building and plans to add more buildings to its campus. First Christian Church began construction in June by removing some modular buildings. The children’s building will open for weekend services and house a preschool during the week. In March, construction is set to start on a multipurpose building. Plans call for an expanded nursery and chapel improvements. A cafe and administration building should be done in mid-2010. In all, the church is adding about 42,000 square feet. Church members are donating money as part of a three-year campaign. A construction loan from Farmers & Merchants Bank will cover the rest.
ORANGE
Walgreen Co. is putting up another drug store on Chapman Avenue near Tustin Street. Bulldozers are onsite and general contractor Savant Construction of Chino is preparing to work on the project. The store replaces an old Drug Emporium, which closed last year. Plans call for two buildings totaling 23,220 square feet on 2 acres. The first is a 14,820-square-foot Walgreens. The second, at 8,400 square feet, is set for a store or a restaurant.
Chapman University is early in the planning phase for a science building, which could be built at the site of a fruit packing plant a few blocks away from the school’s main campus. The school plans to raise $100 million for the project, which could be built as a multistory, 100,000-square-foot building with advanced scientific equipment. It also could include seminar space, faculty research labs and a video globe for displaying satellite imagery. Chapman bought the fruit plant near West Palm Avenue and North Cypress Street in 2003. The plant, known as the Villa Park Orchards Association Packing House, was built in 1919. It’s currently home to Orange-based Prime Produce International LLC, which imports and distributes avocados.
SAN CLEMENTE
The city is reviewing plans to raze a Ralphs grocery store building and commercial center on South El Camino Real near North La Esperanza to make way for a three-story building with space for a grocery store, shops and restaurants. The Village Courtyard Shopping Plaza would have a 40,000-square-foot Ralphs Fresh Fare and 30,000 square feet of shops and restaurants. A parking structure would serve the center. San Clemente residents Rick Skillman, Howard Harmatz and Larry Comire are developing the plaza.
