Developer’s Bold Gamble Pays Off With New Mall, Hope for Area’s Revival : Development: Opening of Santa Ana’s Bristol Village proves doubters wrong. It begins a nice change for a bad part of town.

In what was once the city’s most drug-infested area, the new Bristol Village Mall has opened, a gamble by the developer who said he was undeterred by predictions his business would fail.

When Hyun Mo Youn of Irvine decided to build the $3-million project two years ago, local banks refused him. Crime in the neighborhood was so prevalent that police in 1988 had erected a concrete barrier at one entrance to the neighborhood in an effort to slow drug trafficking.

A Torrance bank eventually provided financing, and the mall celebrated its opening Friday with mariachi music and a feast of Korean food. Youn said he hopes it will set an example for local lenders and investors to take a chance on their own neighborhoods.

The mall also offers the first sign of rebirth of the area around the intersection of Bristol Street and McFadden Avenue. Across the street, a strip shopping center which was a meeting place for gang members and drug dealers has been torn down. In its place, grading has started for an elementary school.

“Two years ago, I wouldn’t dare come to this place, it was too dangerous” said Marie Pulveda, 33, who said she was born and raised in the area. “Now, it’s so peaceful.”

Police Lt. Jose Garcia agreed that the area has improved over the past two years.

“There’s still loitering and drinking,” Garcia said. “But gang and drug activity has decreased as much as 40%.”

The new mall is in an area planned for redevelopment, including a $40-million project to widen Bristol Avenue.

City Manager David N. Ream said Youn dedicated 60 feet of his property to the city for the widening project for free.

“That a private individual would do this is a great boost to our redevelopment efforts,” Ream said.

Youn, 54, said he plans to expand the new 28,000 square-foot mall. One of the additions will be a Mexican restaurant, he said.

He said several business owners who were victims of the Los Angeles riots have expressed interest in putting up stores in the mall. One of them, Han Pyo-Hong, has opened an electronics store.

“They told me it’s a better place to do business here than in Los Angeles,” said Youn, who also owns a liquor store at the corner of McFadden and Bristol, several hundred feet from the new mall.

Youn said that he will try to establish good relations with the surrounding community, and that each of the 28 stores will hire at least one local resident.

“I’m here not just to make money off the community,” Youn said. “I can also help.”