Compiled by Carol Park
Steel framing is up for a 190,000-square-foot Grace Ministries International church expansion. The expansion is set to house a 2,500-seat church, a banquet hall, prayer center and nursery. Grace Ministries plans to keep and remodel an existing church into a school and youth center. The ministry, which runs one of the largest churches for Korean-Americans, operates from a former Hunt-Wesson tomato processing plant that closed in 1996 near Valencia Drive and Commonwealth Avenue. Construction on the church is slated for completion by May.
Redevelopment of a retail center housing a Home Depot and Sam’s Club at 601 to 629 S. Placentia Ave. is under way. Demolition of portions of the center has begun. The site is set to be redeveloped in pieces so the two stores will remain open during reconstruction, said Joan Wolff, Fullerton Community Development Department planning consultant. The site is being redeveloped to replace and update the aging buildings, Wolff said. Home Depot is handling the redevelopment.
St. Jude Medical Center received approval to develop a 100,000-square-foot medical office building across the street from the hospital. The building is set to include medical suites, surgical facilities and administrative offices. Construction is slated to be complete by 2010.
Plans are moving along for a $20.6 million, two-story, 92,900-square-foot retail building at Fashion Island. A grading and shoring permit has been issued for the project. Construction is set to begin soon. Dean & DeLuca is signed on to occupy 23,000 square feet of the building. The building is set to open in 2009. The Irvine Company, which owns Fashion Island, is developing the building.
A 3.8-acre housing project is moving ahead. City officials approved a final site map for the development last month. Plans call for the site to be subdivided into six lots ranging from 20,000 square feet to 26,500 square feet. Grading is set to begin in spring and finish within six months, City Engineer Warren Repke said. Plans call for custom single-family houses. The site is one of the few remaining parcels to be developed in the city, Repke said. “We’re pretty built out,” he said.
A 6,500-square-foot Oggi’s Pizza & Brewing Co. at Chapman Avenue and Harbor Boulevard has been approved. The 200-seat sports restaurant is set to open in June or July, according to developer Byron Davis. San Clemente-based Oggi’s Pizza has 18 restaurants in Southern California,including four in Orange County,as well as in Arizona.
City officials approved a tentative plan for a proposed seven-unit condominium development on Olinda Drive. Plans call for the consolidation of two parcels into one lot. The condos are set to occupy a total of 45,939 square feet.
