Costa Mesa : Council to Consider 2 More Phases of Project

Two more portions of a mammoth, 30.2-acre hotel-commercial-residential project planned for an area east of the Town Center will go before the City Council tonight.

The council will consider final adoption of two phases of the so-called Lakes Project. The first is for a 237-room, 6-story hotel to be built by Beverly Heritage Hotel, a national chain, and will include a two-story restaurant and 329-space, 3-story parking garage. The first floor of the 14,500-square-foot restaurant would be a main dining room, and the upper level would contain meeting rooms and an entertainment lounge, assistant planner Kristen Caspers said.

The three structures, to be built near Avenue of the Arts, would be connected with walkways crisscrossing over a man-made pond, she said.

The hotel chain had won approval last year for the restaurant, a 354-room 13-story hotel and 5 1/2-story parking garage on the site. The chain subsequently scaled down its plans, however.

The other proposal involves two single-story commercial-retail-restaurant developments to cover 20,800 square feet. One would have a 4,200-square-foot restaurant and the other a 7,100-square-foot restaurant, Caspers said.

The remainder of the space, at the northeast corner of Avenue of the Arts and Anton Boulevard, would be reserved for commercial and retail use.

Plans for the Lakes Project, whose developers are Sakioka Farms of Santa Ana and Transpacific Development Co. of Torrance, also call for a second hotel and for a 770-unit condominium project.

The Guest Quarters Hotel already has received council approval. It will be 13 stories and have 213 rooms.

All phases of the condominium project have yet to go before the council.