WESTMINSTER : Visitors Center Plan for Little Saigon

A proposal to open a visitors and cultural center in Little Saigon will go before the Redevelopment Agency today.

The city agency would provide about $152,000 to operate the center for at least one year, according to members of an advisory group of merchant and business leaders who are drafting a plan to promote Little Saigon, a two-square-mile area, as a tourist attraction.

Part of the money would be used to print promotional materials that will be distributed in Los Angeles and Orange counties, said Randy Russell, co-chairman of the Bolsa Corridor Advisory Committee, which is planning the project.

Russell said that money to install decorative signs, lighting, sidewalks, bus shelters and landscaping would likely come from city business assessments in the future. In the meantime, however, officials would need the Redevelopment Agency funds to get the project started.

City officials say that each year an estimated 200,000 people visit Little Saigon’s hundreds of shops, restaurants and other businesses.

The center would offer a place to present cultural shows and provide information about the area, helping to attract even more visitors, officials predict.

Officials said they hope that Little Saigon would be a part of a “Golden Triangle” that would include Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, attracting tourists from around the world.

The committee recommends building a hotel, a convention center, and installing a shuttle bus service carrying tourists from Anaheim and other places to the shops and restaurants in Little Saigon.

With the lifting of the U.S. trade embargo in Vietnam, Russell said he thinks Little Saigon could be a center for trade and contacts with foreign investors.

The Westminster Chamber of Commerce and the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce are both represented on the advisory committee. City officials said that the management of Little Saigon’s marketing and promotion would later be passed on to an association of local merchants.

If the Redevelopment Agency approves the proposal today, the money will be allocated from its 1994-95 budget in coming months, officials said.