Two Venues Drop Plans to Open at Orange Center
Two big entertainment venues that were set to open late last year at the Block at Orange have dropped their plans for the outdoor shopping center altogether.
Polly Esther’s Disco and Culture Club, a 1970s and 1980s themed nightclub, said it’s abandoning plans to open at the Block because of requirements stipulated by Orange Police Department. A year ago, New York-based Polly Esther’s said it planned to open an 11,989-square-foot disco by fall of 2000.
Also pulling out of the Block is The Zone, a Richmond, B.C.-based entertainment complex featuring a microbrewery pub and bowling alley. The venue was announced last April and was set to occupy 44,600 square feet,nearly equal in size to the center’s vibrant Vans Skate Park. But a Zone spokesman said the company determined the location wasn’t suitable for its U.S. debut.
Jim Mance, general manager for the Block at Orange and Ontario Mills, both owned by Arlington, Va.-based Mills Corp., said he isn’t concerned about the loss of the two prospective tenants.
“Typically there’s a two-year shakeup for any mall,” he said. “The downturn in the economy has people gun shy, but we are sitting quite well. I’m not concerned about the economic slowdown because our merchants are on fire.”
The center, which ranks 13th on the Business Journal’s list of top shopping centers, reported 1999 annual sales of $125 million. For the first three quarters of last year, the Block’s sales came in at $87.3 million, just above the $86.6 million for the same period in 1999, according to tax records from the city of Orange. In the past year, the center has opened, relocated or expanded 18 merchants.
Mance said Polly Esther’s nightclub faced stiffer police rules than other Block venues because it didn’t plan to serve food. The Block has been trying to land a nightclub since opening in November 1999, when it announced that Graham Central Station would be among its first tenants. But the themed nightclub run by Odessa, Texas-based Graham Brothers Entertainment later dropped its plans at the center.
As for The Zone, the company’s pullout was a surprise, Mance said.
“We just found out recently that the deal wouldn’t move forward with The Zone,” he said. “We relocated some merchants and got the space ready for them. But about two months ago we learned there was no final commitment.”
The Block still is 96% leased, Mance said, adding that the occupancy rate doesn’t include the Zone space because the cement floor has not been laid yet.
Landing another nightclub tenant may prove difficult, though.
According to Polly Esther’s President Bob Watman, the nightclub would have needed to make too many changes to please the city police. The moves would have reduced the club’s ability to make a profit, he said.
“If we were to get a liquor license, there was a list of 20 or so items we had to abide by. It was unreasonable,” he said.
The club would have had to close at 1:30 a.m., Watman said, rather than 4 a.m. as sites elsewhere do. Polly Esther’s, which operates 21 clubs nationally, is looking at other OC locations including the Buena Park Mall, as well as in San Diego, Watman said. New locations recently opened in Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose and Las Vegas.
Ron Baldwin, a board director of The Zone Entertainment Group Inc., said his company came to the conclusion that a venue at the Block wouldn’t be viable four or five years from now. The company recently closed its Zone Bowling Center and brewery in Kelowna, B.C., due to a lack of profits.
“We are looking for No. 1 profit centers and realized at this time the Block is not the most viable location,” Baldwin said. “There are others locations we are looking into. We are looking at sites from one coast to the other and have a half a dozen picked.”
The company still is interested in a California location, according to Baldwin.
“We were looking to sign a 20- to 25-year lease,” he said. “We have to look into the future as much as possible. The type of clientele at the Block is great, but we are concerned about what type of mall it would be five to 10 years from now. We were not sure whether it would suit our demographics.”
Since its opening two years ago, the Block at Orange has been drawing some 13 million visitors annually. AMC 30 Managing Director Greg Haller said its theaters at the Block rank in the company’s top five of its 200 locations with about 2.3 million visitors a year. n
