Santa Ana : Federal Grant Completes Financing for Center

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded the city a $689,000 grant, the last piece in a complex financing puzzle that will enable a five-man partnership to develop a $10-million, Latino-oriented shopping center downtown.

The Urban Development Action Grant, awarded Monday to the developers of the Fiesta Marketplace, is complemented by $6 million in industrial development bonds, a $200,000 loan from the city and about $8 million in public improvements paid for by the city. Those improvements include acquisition of land that will be sold to the developers, the development of a 700-space parking lot and various street improvements, said Ed Henning, assistant director of the Downtown Development Commission.

After the grant was announced at a downtown meeting, one of the partners, Irv Chase, said the intent is not to create a tourist attraction in the area but to develop an attractive facility for local residents.

“This will not be an Olvera Street,” he said. “It may become that eventually, but that’s an ancillary goal. First, we want to create a nice atmosphere for Hispanics, including the undocumented. I hope we never lose that market.”

The center will feature Spanish-styled architecture--including ceramic tiles and wrought iron--a multiscreen Spanish-language movie theater, restaurants, shops, offices, street vendors and mariachis. Chase said that he hopes to begin construction in early 1986 and complete the Marketplace by Christmas that year.

He said that the area, bounded by 3rd, 5th, French and Bush streets, is already a viable Latino shopping center marred only by beer bars that will be relocated by the city.