Santa Ana and Garden Grove are considering redevelopment of the Willowick Golf Course, and should soon take initial steps to find a master developer.
The golf course stretches over about 101.5 acres on West Fifth Street, about a mile south of the Garden Grove (22) Freeway, in a largely residential area. It’s one of the largest potential development sites remaining in Central Orange County.
The course is in Santa Ana, but owned by Garden Grove, which bought the land in 1955 and generates revenue though the existing golf facilities, whose lease expires in 2021.
The cities previously explored other uses of the site; a few years ago Santa Ana considered buying it with the idea of turning it into a public park.
Last year a group of Central OC cites and local developer Mike Harrah put it forward as a potential site for part of Amazon’s second headquarters as part of a larger bid. The bid didn’t make the short list of the e-commerce giant’s potential landing sites for HQ2.
In December, the two cities held a joint meeting of their city councils to get the ball rolling again on exploring new uses of the site.
This month, Garden Grove and Santa Ana signed off on an agreement advancing potential for redevelopment.
The agreement calls for hiring an economic advisory consultant to propose “potential land use options and provide third party assessment of development proposals,” as well as a facilitator “to conduct extensive community outreach to identify community needs that will guide development of a vision for reuse of the site.”
The cities will also “develop a solicitation for a Master Developer,” according to the agreement.
The solicitation is “intended to enable the cities to select a master developer to begin working to undertake land use planning of the site based on the vision that will be developed through the community outreach process,” city documents said.
A schedule for the developer RFP issuance and the master developer selection hasn’t been disclosed.
The agreement between the cities extends for five years, and short-term extensions of the golf course lease are possible, officials previously said.
REDA Ready
The developer of a new medical center in the Santa Ana Heights area of Newport Beach that opens in July said the project is nearing full occupancy.
Newport Beach-based investment company Real Estate Development Associates LLC, which buys and develops office and industrial properties in Southern California, said it’s wrapped up the bulk of construction of Newport Heights Medical Campus, a two-building, 59,978-square-foot center on Birch Street.
REDA, as the company is also known, bought about 4.5 acres for the project about three years ago in a venture with Irvine-based real estate owner and investor Bascom Group, best known for its large apartment holdings, and Westminster Capital LLC in Lake Forest, Ill.
The project is already 65% leased, and pending deals would increase that to 95%, the developer said. Tenants include UC Irvine Health, Starpoint Health, California Foot and Ankle Institute and Goretti Ho Taghva, MD Inc.
The remainder of the space is being targeted for an urgent-care facility and pharmacy. The development is a good “opportunity for medical operators looking to break into this desirable market,” REDA co-founder and principal Jason Krotts said.
Bryan McKenney of Cypress West Partners is handling leasing.
Ware Malcomb is the architect of the project; Millie and Severson served as general contractor; and financing was provided by Bank of the West.
