The Boomtown : Santa Ana Officials and Developers Predict a ‘Renaissance’ for City’s Downtown Region

In 1982, James Meehan bought his first building in downtown Santa Ana. At the time, with its beer bars, transients, blood banks and rescue missions, the area was as close to an urban ghetto as Orange County had.

Meehan paid about $360,000 for the vacant, 20,000-square-foot office building on the corner of 5th and Main streets. With a few improvements, he assured himself, he couldn’t lose.

Then he learned that the parking in back belonged to another firm. After that, he heard about the city’s earthquake ordinance, and bids for making the building earthquake-safe came in at about $42 a square foot.

“We buy this thing and now you’re hooked. Once you own these little puppies, you know, now you’re into ‘em,” Meehan said.

But today, Meehan is the most successful building owner in Orange County’s only real downtown. The area, generally surrounding Main Street from 1st to 17th streets, was the county’s earliest financial and government center, and the nearby Civic Center still serves as headquarters for city, county, state and federal offices.

‘Hottest Market in County’

With a mix of stately turn-of-the-century architecture and new steel-and-glass, downtown is lurching toward what city officials hope will be a comeback. Although pressure from residents last year killed plans for the Westdome sports arena--a vital link in the downtown plan--other projects and the predicted growth of the Civic Center can pull the area through, the officials say.

“There certainly is a renaissance occurring in Santa Ana,” said Mark Mattingly, an assistant vice president with Coldwell Banker, stressing that the change won’t occur overnight. But central Orange County--Santa Ana, Orange and Anaheim--is “probably the hottest market in Orange County right now,” he said.

Plans to open federal courts and expand the criminal courts make downtown attractive for a lot of companies, including law firms, title companies and escrow firms, said Roger Kooi, downtown development director for the city.

“You’ve got to remember that five to 10 years ago, you could rent space on the street at nickels, dimes and quarters per square foot, whereas now it’s up to $1.25,” Kooi said.

An estimated $26 million has been spent on refurbishing historical buildings, fueled by tax credits and low-interest loans.

Fiesta Marketplace, a Latino-oriented shopping center in downtown’s east side, will open in late 1987 with retail stores and upscale restaurants where beer bars used to be.

The west side, city officials hope, will be anchored by the planned Centerpointe, a 15-story hotel connected by an atrium to an eight-story office building.

Last week, a judge ruled in favor of the city for Centerpointe in a suit brought by two anti-redevelopment groups. The project, the groups alleged, was a blatant example of the city offering taxpayer money to a development firm. Santa Ana is committed to spending about $13 million to provide the land and a parking garage for the project.

The court decision, officials predict, will allow the developer to proceed. It was a giant “shot in the arm for the whole 4th Street area,” former Councilman P. Lee Johnson said.

According to city figures, about 17,600 people work downtown, and that number is expected to grow to about 25,000 by 1995.

Those numbers make developers like Meehan salivate. “If you buy the land around (the Civic Center), you know they’re coming. It’s like standing on a railroad track at night and seeing the light. I mean, you just know it’s coming so you gotta make plans for it,” he said.

‘Pay Big Money’

With the growth of the court system in Santa Ana, legal firms seeking office space are sure to follow, he said.

“The law firms will pay big money, because the law firms we cater to are defense law firms. They are under contract to defend Alcoa Aluminum, Hilton Hotels, Honda, and so these guys already have contracts,” Meehan said. “They have to physically be here. They’re paid by the hours in court, only court time. So if they’re in Newport Beach and they drive over here, it takes ‘em 45 minutes. They’re losing money. So that’s why all the guys want to be within walking distance. They all have a 10-pound valise.”

But the federal courts won’t open until at least mid-1987 and expansion of the criminal courts is a few years away.

For now, vacancy rates fluctuate, and some owners still go into foreclosure downtown. A recent city telephone survey of downtown buildings owners found that some space wasn’t being leased because of inadequate parking and a lack of foot traffic. Kooi said, however, that new garages with 1,360 spaces will partially ease the parking crunch by the end of the year.

To help fill some of those empty offices and to ease overcrowding in City Hall, some city departments moved out and rented space. Today, the public works building and special events departments, among others, occupy about 70,000 square feet downtown.

More departments will move into Centerpointe, Deputy City Manager Rex Swanson said. Under terms of the city’s agreement with the developers, Carley Capital group, about 72,000 square feet will be leased.

Struggles to Revitalize

Kooi said the idea has provided some activity for the downtown area as it struggles to revitalize.

“With the city offices in there, you show the financial community down there that there is economic vitality because people eat lunch in the restaurants and use the parking structures,” he said. “We’re feeding ourselves in some ways, but we’re also showing that these buildings are desirable places to be.”

But eventually, he said, private firms should replace government downtown.

“I’m not of the philosophy that you ought to institutionalize your downtown because that’s a kiss of death in the end.”

Meehan calls all of the shuffling fun. His first building, now refurbished, is occupied by Chicago Title Co.

But other building owners have not been so successful, nor are they as optimistic about downtown’s future.

Robert Theel, a developer, who owns the Odd Fellows Building at 309 N. Main St., is trying to sell it and says he will concentrate on his work in South Orange County development.

‘Red Flags’

Theel said his building was excluded twice in bidding to lease space to city departments. “All of the things I’ve heard, and some of that is hearsay, and the things that have happened, to me just throws up all sorts of red flags,” he said. “I don’t want to work in that kind of environment. I’d be very cautious about getting involved again.”

Theel said he has his doubts about a downtown renaissance, but added that he believes the Fiesta Marketplace is a sign that the city is moving to embrace its Latino culture. More than half the city’s residents are Latino.

Mayor Dan Young said he anticipates a major marketing program to sell downtown, and that he hopes to see results by next Christmas with shoppers at the Fiesta Marketplace.

“It’s going to take us another year or two before it really settles into people’s minds that the downtown has been revitalized and has a new face on it,” he said.

Seeing a comeback, former Councilman Johnson said, would be like watching a child grow.

“These things don’t happen overnight, it takes years of hard work to implement these things,” he said. “A downtown area like ours is a rarity, it’s like a fragile child with brittle bones. You’ve got to take care of them every minute.”