Santa Ana : Church Buys Building Sought for Housing

A boarded-up building that preservationists wanted converted to low-income housing has been bought by its neighbor, the First Presbyterian Church, which may demolish it.

The purchase came less than three weeks after the City Council refused to loan money to a group that wanted to renovate the Santa Ana Hotel for low-income housing.

The church had protested the plans by a partnership of two firms and a local social agency, saying that the move would simply turn the structure back into the flophouse it once was. City officials in turn informed the partnership that church approval would have to be obtained to get the city loan.

Church spokesman Bob Politiski said Tuesday that a committee of church members will be formed Thursday to examine possible uses for the site at Main Street and Santa Ana Boulevard. The structure is likely to be torn down to make way for parking or a day-care center, but it might also be retained for some use, Politiski said, such as expansion of the church’s social hall.

Politiski said he would not be surprised if a challenge comes from groups wanting to preserve the building, which was built in 1922 and is listed as part of the downtown Santa Ana Historical District.

“Can anyone remember anything historical that ever happened in that hotel?” he asked. Politiski said that many churchgoers have told of being the targets of beer cans and obscenities from transients who occupied the hotel before it was closed in 1983.

Architect Don Krotee, who had proposed reopening the hotel along with builder Al Shankle and the nonprofit Feedback Foundation, said he believes that the church will demolish the hotel and called the purchase “horrifying.”