SANTA ANA : Land Purchase for Science Center OKd

A proposed Discovery Science Center has moved one step closer to reality with the City Council’s recent agreement to buy five acres of unused Caltrans land and give it to the center.

The council has promised to negotiate for the property north of the Santa Ana Freeway, just west of Main Street, said Bob Hoffman, the city’s redevelopment and real estate manager. He said Caltrans has agreed to hold the land for 18 months until the city can purchase it.

“I’m thrilled,” Karen Johnson, executive director of Discovery Science Center, said. “The freeway visibility (will make) it much easier for us to be identified and our location known.”

The center is expected to open in 1997 and will provide 76,000 square feet of interactive science exhibits, as well as an IMAX theater. It will cost about $19 million to build and is expected to draw more than 600,000 visitors annually.

Johnson said the center hopes to use a portion of the Caltrans land as a parking lot and turn a furniture store building next door into the actual exhibit hall. She said lease arrangements for the building should be completed shortly.

The center originally had been planned for a site on Main Street south of the freeway, next to Bowers Museum of Cultural Art. That land, however, was more expensive, Johnson said, and did not offer as much exposure to freeway commuters.