Struggling Plaza Village Counts on Restaurant Boom

South Coast Plaza Village, the struggling Santa Ana specialty center across from its highly successful sister mall--South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa--has finally begun to take action on its long-planned redirection into a restaurant center.

The 42-store Village, which has seen a steady loss of tenants over the last two years, is hoping that the Sept. 29 opening of the $70.7-million Orange County Performing Arts Center will bolster business and bring hungry theatergoers into the doors of its nine restaurants.

To prepare for larger crowds and more restaurants, crews began to pave the way for an additional 200 to 250 parking spaces at the center earlier this week by demolishing the former Boy Scouts of America headquarters that was adjacent to the center on Bear Street.

Parking is the key to additional restaurant growth at the center since the City of Santa Ana requires more parking for new restaurants at the Village. The additional parking is expected to be completed within a few months.

Despite the shift toward more restaurants, tenants at the center have long speculated that owners plan to demolish the Village complex and replace it with a high-rise office building. Owners, however, say that is not in the plans. “There is no plan now to put an office building there,” said Linda Frost, marketing director at the Village.

But she said that more restaurants are in the cards and that owners are negotiating with several restaurant operators.

Within six weeks, Frost said, restaurants at the Village plan to combine with those at South Coast Plaza and the nearby Town Center in a direct-mail advertising campaign aimed at bringing more local residents out to their eateries.

Still, the Village has recently had trouble holding onto its restaurant tenants. In January, Meyerhof’s restaurant--a popular outdoor cafe--closed. And the Belgian Waffle Inn, a coffee shop that opened 13 years ago with the center, expects to move out when its lease expires later this year.

“We’re looking for a new location,” said Kevin Moeller, manager of the 170-seat Belgian Waffle. “Our business is off 20%. It’s been going downhill for several years.”

Tenants complain that developer Henry Segerstrom has ignored the Village in recent years, in favor of his more glitzy projects at South Coast Plaza and the Performing Arts Center.

And a spokesman for Segerstrom does not deny it. “Henry’s (Segerstrom) time is directed to South Coast Plaza and the Performing Arts Center,” said Tom Santley, director of public affairs for C.J. Segerstrom & Sons. “South Coast Village is not much of a priority at the moment.”