Developers Try Hand at Main Street Concourse
By DANIEL D. WILLIAMS
Santa Ana’s on-again, off-again Main Street Concourse has another developer with plans for retail, office and housing on the site.
In August, Bill Hammerstein of Beverly Hills and Robert Bisno of Berkeley bought the site for a reported $8 million from Costa Mesa-based Polygon Development LP. The property,17.5 acres of mostly vacant land next to MainPlace/Santa Ana mall,has a tumultuous history of big plans that have come to naught.
The project is the first venture into Orange County by Hammerstein and Bisno.
“They’re savvy guys,” said Jim Duke, a retail broker with the Anaheim office of CB Richard Ellis Services Inc. “They have a vision for the property.”
That vision is of an “urban integrated village” at the northeast corner of Main Street and Owen Drive.
Hammerstein and Bisno worked together on Arboretum, a multi-use development in Santa Monica. The two were seeking a follow-up project when Bisno, looking at an aerial shot of Orange County, “saw this huge, vacant piece in the middle of the city,” Hammerstein said.
“It was within walking distance to a million-square-foot mall, a high-rise office market and is close to Edison Field, the Pond and Disney,” he said.
The duo’s urban village would include apartments or condominiums. There’s also been word of a small satellite location of the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art.
Hammerstein said he and Bisno thought they had a workable plan in place last week when they met with representatives for the retail and office portions of the project. But the partners said the plan didn’t have the right mix, according to Hammerstein.
So, he said, “There really isn’t a plan right now. It’s back to the drawing board for us.”
The Main Street site remains a puzzler. One industry source called the property “the crown jewel of Santa Ana.”
The city wants a mixed-use project. So have various developers in the past 12 years. So why is the site still empty?
Until now, neither city officials nor developers have been able to agree on the mix.
In the various plans, developers and city officials have envisioned everything from high-rise class A office space to a mirror image of the swanky Third Street Promenade area in Santa Monica.
The city is said to be pushing for a big office building on the site, something brokers say may be too aggressive.
Santa Ana officials didn’t return calls for this story.
Hammerstein said he’s aware of the land’s history and wants to avoid the pitfalls that have plagued prior proposals for the site.
For years, the Hurwitz family had one of OC’s few remaining orange groves on the property.
Commerce grew around it,high-rise office buildings, a massive mall, coffee shops and bookstores.
About 12 years ago, Mark Hurwitz sold the parcel to a Japanese company for an estimated $25 million.
Ever since, the land has become something of an albatross for developers that have bought high and sold low
Through the years, it has sold for $20 million, $15 million and now $8 million.
“This property has been in and out of escrow,” said Wally Limburg of Newport Beach-based Strategic Retail Advisors, who has been retained to market the retail part of the project.
San Francisco-based Hopkins Development Inc. had the property in escrow at one time.
Most recently, Phoenix-based Opus West Corp. pulled out after one plan after another was rejected by the city.
“It’s a very exciting project with exciting possibilities, but it’s a challenge to make all the components work economically,” said Paul Marshall, senior vice president of real estate development for Opus West.
Opus talked of a 220,000-square-foot office project and a 100,000-square-foot retail portion with apartments.
But the developer reached an impasse when the city pushed for an even bigger office element, according to sources.
Owner Polygon ate its losses on the property and ended up selling the land to Hammerstein and Bisno.
Hammerstein said he and his partner won’t put out a finished plan until they have something that they think will fly with the city.
“The city will have the last say,” said a source familiar with the property.
