Local News in Brief : Santa Ana : Office Complex Project Expected to Be Scuttled

Plans for a $20-million downtown office complex at Flower Street and Santa Ana Boulevard are expected to be scuttled next week by the Community Redevelopment Agency because the developer has been unable to come up with financing.

The Lowy Development Corp. signed an agreement with the agency in 1985 to build three office buildings totaling 150,000 square feet on the site, which is across from the Orange County Jail. But the company has been unable to get money to buy the land, which belongs to the redevelopment agency, because of a high vacancy rate in the downtown area, according to a memo prepared by agency director Cynthia J. Nelson.

The agency staff and company have agreed that the contract should be terminated, but the City Council--which serves as the agency’s board--must approve the decision.

Downtown development director Roger Kooi said other developers have expressed interest in taking over the project. And although the developer of another major project, the Carley Capital Group’s proposed Centerpointe project at Ross and 4th streets, backed out in October, Kooi said the city’s ambitious plans to renovate the area have not been jeopardized. Other developers have shown an interest in building the Centerpointe project, Kooi said, even though the city is offering a smaller subsidy than it did to the previous developer.

“That just points out that we don’t need to subsidize it the way we did” to attract developers,” he said.