Hotel-Office Plan Passed in Santa Ana

Plans for a $500-million development that will create thousands of jobs and include the county’s tallest building were approved unanimously by the City Council Monday night.

The Main Street Concourse will be built on 17 acres on Main Street between Owens Drive and Lawson Way and will generate as many as 4,500 permanent jobs, said Mike Cutri, a spokesman for the developer, Tokyo-based Shimizu America Corp. It will also create as many as 2,000 temporary jobs during each phase of construction.

Phase 1 includes a 32-story office building, retail space, a health club, live theater and movie theater, as well as 64 townhomes, all of which should open as soon as early 1996. The office building would be tallest structure in Orange County.

Phase 2 includes 216 high-rise condominiums, offices, a hotel and 1,800 parking spaces. That phase is expected to be done six years after construction begins.

Robyn Uppegraff, executive director of the city’s planning and building agency, said the project would generate about $6 million in tax revenues and business fees.

“This is truly a win-win-win project all the way around,” City Councilman Robert L. Richardson said.

The land, owned by Newport Beach-based Orient Corp. of America, is vacant except for the site of Polly’s Pies.