Plans for a big mixed-use development in the Little Saigon area of Westminster have been unveiled by the project’s local design team.
Irvine-based KTGY Architecture & Planning took the wraps off design plans this month for a nearly six-acre development site at the southeast corner of Bolsa Avenue and Brookhurst Street, about a mile south of the Garden Grove (22) Freeway.
The site is fenced off and largely unused, but under KTGY’s Bolsa Row proposal, it would be turned into a mix of residential and commercial uses.
Plans call for a five-story 150-room hotel that would be the area’s first. Also on tap: a five-story, 201-unit apartment community with studios and one- and two-bedroom apartment homes, plus about 60,000 square feet of ground-floor “experiential and lifestyle retail,” restaurants and an event facility.
The development is headed by a Huntington Beach-based entity that operates as IP Westminster LLC. The LLC is led by Joann and Bac Pham, who have hotels in Garden Grove and other nearby cities.
Records show the Phams own Garden Grove’s Ramada Plaza hotel. Joann Pham has also served as an executive at Irvine-based lender Greenlight Financial Services, which was bought in 2013 by Texas-based Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. for a reported $75 million.
IP Westminster bought the Bolsa Row site in 2014 for about $13.2 million, according to CoStar Group Inc. records.
The project is intended to fit into the largely Vietnamese community in the immediate area.
“The goal of the new development is to give back to the community of Little Saigon and the City of Westminster by creating a unique live, shop, celebrate destination that evokes the spirit of pre-1970s Vietnam and honors the Vietnamese culture and traditions,” KTYG Director of Planning Johanna Crooker said in a statement.
“The architectural style of the new development reflects French Colonial influences and the elegance of great spaces, lifestyle and the atmosphere before the war.”
Notable design features include a landscaped Celebration Bridge with seating areas connecting the event hall to the hotel’s second-story roof garden, plus rooftop spaces with viewing areas for the nearby fireworks displays at Disneyland.
The plan is connected by a pedestrian-friendly Festival Street retail promenade that could host Southeast Asian summer market nights and similar events.
The city is reviewing project plans, according to the architect. A development time frame hasn’t been disclosed.
Legal Lease
Callahan & Blaine, one of Santa Ana’s largest law firms by lawyer count, has renewed the lease on its South Coast Metro headquarters.
The litigation firm, which employs about 30 lawyers here, said it’s extended the lease term for its 32,000-square-foot offices at 3 Hutton Centre in Santa Ana.
It’s been at the location for 17 years. The new lease will result in renovations to the offices, including elimination of obsolete file rooms and storage rooms. They’ll be replaced by “a multipurpose room and upgraded cafe, additional conference rooms, plus other upgrades to enhance their working environment,” according to Chon Kantikovit, a broker with Cushman & Wakefield Inc.’s Irvine office who represented the tenant in the latest lease.
The 10-story property is owned by San Diego-based Cypress Office Properties, which bought it last year for $50.5 million.
