Mike Harrah,”Big Mike”,tends to do things in a big way.
He’s seeking big tenants as part of his bid to build Orange County’s tallest office tower in Santa Ana. His Santa Ana-based Caribou Industries Inc. owns about 3 million square feet of space downtown and around the Civic Center.
For fun, Harrah races dragsters at the Las Vegas Speedway and flies one of only two civilian-owned Cobra attack helicopters.
Now comes Harrah’s latest project: the OC Pavilion, a lavish theater created in Bank of America Corp.’s former regional headquarters on Main Street. The building, flanked by two working ATM machines, is ordinary on the outside, grand on the inside.
Two years in the making, the plush 500-seat theater has a $3.5 million sound system.
Downstairs is a wine cellar with an arched brick ceiling, marble floors and a 22-foot tasting table.
The theater’s Ambrosia restaurant,named for a restaurant Harrah used to run,has a three-waiter system for snappy service, a bar and a small stage. It opens Oct. 1.
Chef Jean-Marie Josselin, owner of 808 restaurant at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, heads the 70-seat Ambrosia.
Off to the side is the Boardroom, a private dining area where Harrah keeps his antique Steinway piano.
In the Vault Room, which literally used to store $1 billion in cash, “vault girls” serve drinks dressed in Las Vegas-style costumes.
For the theater’s house revue show, “50 Years of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Harrah recruited Bill Medley of the Righ-teous Brothers as producer.
As with most of his other projects, Harrah designed the theater himself and is mindful of details. On a recent visit, he was flipping through a candlestick catalog.
Harrah said he budgeted $5 million for the theater. He’s up to $22 million.
“We’re a little over budget,” said Harrah, smiling and gathering his long, grayish beard flecked with red at the tip.
Harrah has become a minor celebrity himself because of his eccentricities and his doggedness in redeveloping Santa Ana.
He’s had plenty of opposition. Many in the city appreciate his restoring of old buildings. But critics say Harrah’s tower plan goes too far.
Some in the predominantly Hispanic city say he’s changing Santa Ana’s Mexican flavor with art galleries and restaurants.
Harrah said he spent $1 million on a spring campaign to get voter approval for his 37-story high-rise, which voters approved.
Harrah attributed the win to Hispanic voters and business leaders such as bookstore owner Ruben Martinez, who wants the tower built.
“I really believe that good prevails no matter what,” Harrah said.
Harrah is a big guy, both in stature and character. He’s also a bit of a contradiction. The burly outdoorsman has two tiny Chihuahuas named Harley and Scooter.
Harrah surprised OC Pavilion marketing director Dawn Marie Peterson with painted clouds on her office ceiling after she casually said it would be nice. The day she signed on, he had her name written in gold letters on the door.
Harrah calls himself a carpenter, typically dressed in jeans and a dark blue shirt with a Caribou Industries logo. He’s boisterous but said he doesn’t like the limelight.
He’s also a drummer and has been a musician since fourth grade.
“I wanted to play the piano really bad,” he said.
But pianos were expensive. So his mother guided him toward the trombone.
“She knew I liked shiny stuff,” he said. “If I were a fish, I’d be dead.”
Harrah credits Roy Anthony, his music teacher from the fourth grade through high school, for allowing him to reveal his inner ham.
In high school, Harrah was a drum major and played offensive center on the varsity football team.
Harrah still plays drums, keeping his set at the lower level of the Pavilion. His practice time often is limited to his steering wheel, though, he said. One day he said he’d like to be the third beard performing with Texas rockers ZZ Top, who his looks often are compared to.
You could venture that Harrah poured himself into the Pavilion because of his love of music. But no. The Pavilion simply is part of the bigger picture, he said.
“It’s part of my master plan to redevelop downtown Santa Ana,” Harrah said.
To draw tenants to his proposed tower, other stuff has to be there, Harrah said. That includes restaurants, the Orange County High School of the Arts (which he helped remodel) and entertainment venues.
That’s what makes the Pavilion Harrah’s passion of late.
“Every morning he’s here,” Peterson said. “He doesn’t sleep.”
Harrah said he starts his day at about 4 a.m. and ends at about 9 p.m.
The Pavilion originally was set to be a modest office building. Then someone approached Harrah about turning it into a theater. The person wanted the basics within six months.
“As I spent more and more time with it, I got more involved,” Harrah said. “It’s like buying a 57 T-Bird and saying you’re just going to paint it.”
As Harrah became immersed in the details, the interested party couldn’t wait any longer and bailed, he said. But Harrah kept scheming.
“It’s not in me just to build a makeshift deal here,” he said. “I wanted to build a real nice place.”
Harrah said he typically designs by drawing on the walls or the floors in the proximity of the area of where he’s working. Someone else follows up with a blueprint, even though Harrah said he could do it himself as a trained architect.
“There isn’t anything I haven’t built,” he said.
The Pavilion also houses a recording studio and a post-production facility. Conceivably, a show could be shot at the Pavilion, edited and sent to a network, according to Peterson.
Performers at the Pavilion get the rock star treatment. There are four “Star Suites” and a “Green Room,” where the media and an entourage can hang out.
“Rock girls” act as the entertainers’ concierge, discreetly offering a second bottle of Jack Daniels or getting tickets to outings for their kids.
Harrah “wanted the old way of catering to the artist,” Peterson said.
The Marshall Tucker Band recently played the Pavilion, to the delight of Harrah. Jose Feliciano is lined up for December. Hot 92 Jamz is bringing Earth, Wind & Fire for a listener appreciation party.
Fiona Apple, BB King, Chicago and Ireland’s Celtic Woman are possibilities.
Ticket prices are on the high side, given the intimacy and swank of the theater. The revue show costs $20 to $35. A seat for Feliciano is $95 to $145.
Harrah said he hopes to lure Aretha Franklin. He said he’d even fly in his helicopter to pick her up. But Franklin is known to be fearful of flying.
“I’m a huge fan of R & B;,” Harrah said.
Another favorite he’s working on: country singer LeAnn Rimes.
“I like all kinds of music,” Harrah said.
A sign on one door,Chorus Line Dressing Room,says Harrah wants to do more than music. He’s thinking musical theatre, ballet and opera. The Pavilion also has a catwalk for fashion shows.
Harrah has a lot of competition. The Orange County Performing Arts Center is just up the road in Costa Mesa. Then there’s Anaheim’s House of Blues and other venues.
Peterson called the Pavilion “unique” with its lush design, luxury trappings and restaurant.
Expectations are the Pavilion will be profitable in a year.
Like other places, Harrah is looking to rent out the theater for business parties and events. General Manager Dusty Hanvey is heading that effort, along with booking the bands.
Hanvey met Harrah through Righteous Brother Medley. Hanvey is a former guitarist and road manager for the Righteous Brothers, who got their start in OC.
Medley’s daughter went to the Orange County High School of the Arts.
For Hanvey, the work is new, he said.
“It’s a giant shock to my system,” he said. “I’ve been on the other side of it. I’d come into these places.” Hanvey said his experience working with musicians and the entertainment industry has been invaluable.
He’s settled in and his family is happy to have him home, Hanvey said.
“I miss the shows,” he said. “I don’t miss the travel.”
The challenge now is getting people to see the venue.
“Mike kept it real quiet,” Peterson said.
Harrah wanted it done before he started talking, according to Peterson.
“I’m a very competitive person,” Harrah said.
Harrah’s often asked why Santa Ana. To which he gives both a logical and emotional answer.
“I felt as though it had really good bones,” he said.
Since Harrah started buying in the early 1990s downturn, he said the area has improved and property values have gone up.
He cited his own Original Mike’s restaurant,in a historic former auto dealership building downtown,as an example. It’s pulling in $350,000 a month in sales, he said.
“All my life I’ve been around this area,” Harrah said.
When Harrah began investing in Santa Ana, lawyers and other professionals fled to the Irvine Spectrum and other areas, he said. He could’ve left but he stayed.
“It was what I really believed in my heart,” he said.
Santa Ana has made Harrah a wealthy man. But he said, “It’s always about the self satisfaction of doing something different that no one else would.”
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Reality Mike
Mike Harrah is set to debut in a 30-minute pilot for NBC.
The reality show focuses on someone who has spiffed up a downtrodden city. For the show, he teamed up with Los Angeles “Channel 4 News” broadcaster David Cruz.
“His deal was action, action, action,” Harrah said.
NBC shot about 153 hours of film. The preview of the pilot has plenty of action,Harrah on his Harley, in his helicopter, his dragster.
He keeps all his toys at a hangar in Lake Havasu, where he did development early in his career.
Decked out in jeans, a T-shirt and polished stainless steel Black Flys sunglasses, Harrah looks like a ZZ Top song. His tagline: “That’s what I’m talking about.”
Harrah is no stranger to TV. He just finished flying his helicopter for an episode of “ER.” He’s often called for helicopter duty. It’s an uncommon skill, he said.
Harrah and his copter have appeared in movies such as “G.I. Jane” and “The Rock.” Harrah said he gets $10,000 to $12,000 a day. Lately, he’s had to decline requests to fly because of his focus on the OC Pavilion theater and his planned 37-story high-rise in Santa Ana.
Harrah’s not sure what he’ll do if the series gets picked up.
“I’m really a pretty reclusive guy,” he said.
,Sherri Cruz
