An 18-acre site that used to be owned by Cottonwood Christian Center is being redeveloped with restaurants and stores by Kansas City, Mo.-based owner Jones Development Co. A Red Robin at the corner of Walker Street and Katella Avenue opened last month. A 150,000-square-foot Costco Wholesale store has been open for more than a year. Development in another section stands to add 12,250 square feet of shops at Katella and Winners Circle. The shops are set to open within the next few months. The development has been controversial. The city bought the site from Cottonwood Christian Center in 2003 and then sold it to Jones Development for $2.5 million in 2005. Before that, the site was subject of a lawsuit pitting the church against the city, which wanted Costco.
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The two settled their differences with a land swap that allowed Cottonwood Christian to move to a larger 30-acre site at Katella and Lexington Street, a former golf course. The church recently began putting up walls for its first buildings. The complex is set to have roughly 500,000 square feet of buildings when done, with construction happening in four phases during the next eight to 10 years.
Demolition continues on the former Nabisco factory along the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway. But there’s a change in the lineup for the site’s redevelopment. Irvine’s Centra Realty Corp. sold its stake in the project to partner Seligman Western Enterprises Ltd. of San Francisco, according to Centra’s Keith Ross. Terms weren’t disclosed. Seligman, which develops commercial space and housing throughout California, now owns all of the 24-acre site. A plan to redevelop the land hasn’t been finalized. The owner is working with the city’s redevelopment agency to rezone the site to allow for stores and possibly auto dealerships. The site is near Buena Park’s hub of auto dealers alongside the freeway. Seligman is said to be in talks with big retailers about anchoring the redeveloped site. Construction could be done within a year.
The Planning Commission approved a bid from Blake Bret Properties LLC to allow an office and garage for a small auto racing team. The commission also signed off on storage of vehicles behind the building. Blake Bret Motor Sports, a race team owned by racer Kent Jordan, is set to move into a 30,000-square-foot lot at 3036 Enterprise St. The site houses a 10,360-square-foot building that used to be a tooling and machining shop school. It closed last year. Jordan drives Mitsubishi-backed racecars at California tracks. Costa Mesa is a hotbed for automotive engineering and testing shops for racecars.
The Citrus, a development of small industrial buildings for sale, is going up on a 7.3-acre site at 511 S. Harbor Blvd. The 10 buildings proposed for the site are set to contain 23 industrial spaces for sale. The project is 130,165 square feet in all and replaces older buildings on the site.
City officials approved the renovation of Alicia Office Park at 25201 to 25261 Paseo de Alicia. The 112,000-square-foot office park, owned by Newport Beach-based Orion Property Partners, is set to see renovations inside and out. A daycare facility leases one of the units and is set to stay during construction. An 18,000-square-foot medical office is set to open once the renovation is done.
Newport Beach-based Low & Archibald Partners has gotten city approval to build a medical office building and parking. The building and garage have been proposed for a 23,000-square-foot property at 30111 Niguel Road near Crown Valley Parkway. The developer hasn’t lined up tenants yet. Construction is set to start soon.
A government center designed to teach the public about the environment is set to open next summer. The 12,900-square-foot facility first was approved by the city in 2001. The center is designed as a place for people to learn about environmental protection, restoration and water quality. The estimated construction cost is $5.7 million. The center is set to include a working water quality laboratory, “green” buildings and parking areas, as well as an active restoration area. The center is a project of the Orange County Health Care Agency’s Water Quality Lab; the University of California, Irvine; Newport Bay Naturalists and Friends; the State Coastal Conservancy; the California Department of Fish and Game; and the California Coastal Commission.
