A former Unocal Corp. research center in Brea is set to give way to 1,100 homes and 110,000 square feet of stores, restaurants and offices.
Another 250 homes, including apartments and townhouses, are being planned for an area alongside the nearby Birch Hills Golf Course.
Construction of a masterplanned community spanning both parcels could start early next year, with a quartet of local developers working alongside landowner Chevron Corp. for the bulk of the construction.
Chevron acquired the land in its 2005 buy of El Segundo-based Unocal.
The empty 120-acre Unocal site is near Imperial Highway and Valencia Avenue. Unocal had operations there for more than 50 years. The company’s research center at the site was shuttered about a decade ago.
Unocal’s old buildings were torn down about a year ago. Among the razed buildings was the Hartley Center, an iconic auditorium designed by noted architect William Pereira.
An environmental impact study for the redevelopment, called La Floresta, should be finalized next month. After that, a 45-day public review is set to take place before Brea’s Planning Commission takes up the issue.
“The best-case scenario is for the project to have its entitlements by the end of the year,” said David Crabtree, Brea’s city planner. “After that, it’s up to Chevron.”
Jim Martinez, project manager for Chevron Land & Development Co., said he’d like to see initial construction start at the Unocal site in early 2007, with work starting on the golf course land later in the year.
Irvine-based Standard Pacific Corp. is an investor in the La Floresta project and will be heading up most of the homebuilding on the site.
For more on this story, see the July 24 edition of the Business Journal.
