$45-Million Costa Mesa Center OKd

Costa Mesa City Council this week approved a plan to build a $45-million shopping and entertainment center downtown, despite the protests of several small-business owners who must move.

The council voted 4 to 1 for the Mediterranean-style Triangle Square complex at Harbor and Newport boulevards. The council also voted to condemn the properties of at least 13 small businesses on the 4.5-acre site to make room for the complex.

Councilwoman Sandra L. Genis, the only member to vote against condemning the properties, argued that the small businesses are needed and should not be razed to benefit the city.

Several of the business owners said the purchase and relocation offers made by Triangle Square Associates, co-developer of the project, were inadequate. Others argued that, after investing thousands of dollars in their businesses, they should not have to uproot themselves for an upscale shopping center.

“This is one of the nicest stores we have, and I don’t know where we would move and pay the rents we are paying now,” said Mic Mead, owner of the six-store Adventure 16 Outdoor chain, whose Costa Mesa store is on Harbor Boulevard.

City officials said, however, that the new complex will improve the appearance of the city’s downtown redevelopment area and compared the project to San Francisco’s Ghirardelli Square.

Officials also said the Triangle Square project will generate about $1 million in taxes annually.

The 185,000-square-foot project will include two aboveground levels of shops and restaurants and a subterranean level that will include a supermarket. Also included in the plan is a 2,200-seat, eight-screen Cineplex-Odeon movie theater, the first in the county.

“We feel that Triangle Square is the most significant and innovative retail development to be announced in Orange County this year,” said Jerry Klein, a spokesman for Triangle Square Associates.

Klein said he expects demolition to begin as early as this fall, with the complex completed by early 1991.