Live! From Gaslamp : Development: $35-million Live from Xanadu entertainment complex approved. The developer, an Orson Welles buff, names it after a fictional retreat in ‘Citizen Kane.’

From the real estate developer who brought us the Parking Palace, One Harbor Drive and the Hillcrest Union Bank building, it’s Live from Xanadu.

Designs for Neil Senturia’s $35-million entertainment complex in the Gaslamp Quarter were approved unanimously Friday by the Centre City Development Corp.

The 285,000-square-foot Live From Xanadu center would include a night club, a multiplex movie theater, restaurants and retail stores. The CCDC board voted 5-0, with directors Joseph Wong and Milton Fredman abstaining.

Senturia described the project as a “miniature Horton Plaza” in the southern section of the Gaslamp Quarter, and said Live From Xanadu would attract up to a million visitors a year, based on an established pedestrian flow.

The project would be built on a 50,000-square-foot parking lot on the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and K Street. More than a dozen restaurants and nightclubs have opened nearby in the past two years.

Construction of what would be the historic district’s largest development is expected to begin in one year, pending final approval by the City Council on Dec. 7. Senturia said the project financing is being worked out; before a ground-breaking date is set, Senturia’s development company, Gaslamp Partners, will solicit tenants for the center.

The city stands to gain substantial tax revenue from the businesses at the center, said CCDC board President Patrick Kruer.

The center’s businesses would employ 250 workers, Senturia said.

Senturia has invested in several successful developments around the city, including the huge Parking Palace garage on Ash Street and two large office buildings in the uptown area.

Among Senturia’s struggling developments are two high-rise towers at One Harbor Drive on the harbor-side entrance to the Gaslamp Quarter. Completed since the summer, less than half of the luxury condominiums are occupied.

On the top floor of the four-story center would be a 16,400-square-foot nightclub, a large lookout terrace and a “VIP lounge.”

The third floor is designed to house seven to 10 movie theaters; the second and first levels would contain retail stores, restaurants and a movie ticket booth. Parking for 431 cars is designed for the four levels and in an underground lot.

Senturia, a former Hollywood screenwriter, said the name Xanadu comes from the thinly veiled reference to Hearst Castle, San Simeon, in Orson Welles’ film classic “Citizen Kane.” Welles took the name a Coleridge poem, “Kubla Khan.”

Senturia said he is a fan of Welles, and he directed the center’s architect to design a wooden tower atop the center, one that resembles the transmitting tower of Welles’ RKO studio logo.

The tower, however, adds 50 feet to the height of the center, which would exceed the maximum zoning height in the district, said CCDC director Lucy Goldman. A height variance must be approved by the City Council.