Fountain Valley Tells Plan for Business, Retail Center

There are strawberries today, but high-tech office buildings and retail stores are coming in December.

If all goes according to the development plan that Fountain Valley officials revealed Wednesday, a 140.4-acre business and shopping center could be one of the biggest changes seen by the city’s residents.

Southpark, which when completed would be the largest center of its kind in the city, could add $1.5 million to $2 million in sales taxes to the city’s coffers annually, City Manager Judy Kelsey said.

Another benefit of the project, which would be built in phases, is about 14,000 new jobs that Fountain Valley residents would be prime candidates to fill, she added.

The proposed site, a Sakioka Farms strawberry field on the city’s southeast side, is bounded by Slater Avenue on the north, Talbert Avenue on the south, the Santa Ana River on the east and Euclid Street on the west. Talbert and Euclid would probably be widened to add turning lanes, and traffic signals would be adjusted where necessary, Kelsey said.

A Price Club commercial center, to be built by the San Diego-based Price Co. and Kornwasser & Freidman, is expected to cover 30 acres on the north side of Talbert Avenue. The center, the first phase of the project, is expected to include a 150,000-square-foot Price Club anchor store and 132,000 square feet of retail stores.

Price is in the process of buying the land, Kelsey said.

Fountain Valley Associates would develop the remaining 110.4 acres with retail stores and business offices. They have not announced details.

The city Planning Commission was briefed on the plan Wednesday night. The tentative parcel map of the site, environmental impact report and a conditional use permit for the shopping center will be discussed at a commission hearing Wednesday.

The development plan and requested change from a manufacturing zone to a planned community district should come before the City Council in July. If the plan is approved, construction of the Price Club and the first phase would begin in August. The first phase includes building seven office complexes of one and two stories on 15 acres, Kelsey said.

Mayor James E. Neal, Mayor Pro Tem Barbara Brown and City Council members, obviously in high spirits, expressed hope that Southpark will be completed and filled with stores in time to attract Christmas shoppers.

Neal lavished praise on the City Council and the Fountain Valley Agency for Community Development for “united” work on the project.

Councilwoman Laurann Cook, saying she was “excited” by the community projects the city can build with the new revenue, said the city “has looked for something of this magnitude for a long time.”

Brown called Southpark “a win-win situation” for the community and Price.

Some Fountain Valley residents had relinquished hope for a “regional discount shopping center” there because of South Coast Plaza and a regional shopping center in Huntington Beach, Neal said.

But Southpark “will do the trick,” he said.