Entertainment Center Is Planned Next to Pond : Growth: A $50-million complex styled after New Orleans French Quarter is envisioned for site where mobile home park closed.
A developer plans to turn 23 acres next to The Pond into an ambitious $50-million entertainment and retail complex.
The development, to be built on the site of a mobile home park closed earlier this year, would be called “The Quarter” and employ architecture modeled after the French Quarter in New Orleans.
It would be anchored by five restaurants, some possibly the caliber of Planet Hollywood or Cheesecake Factory.
The city also has plans for a large entertainment and retail complex next to Anaheim Stadium, a quarter mile from where the Quarter would be built. City officials reacted cautiously to developer Jack Stanaland’s plan, expressing concerns about a glut of such businesses but warm to the idea of a another big revenue producer.
Stanaland of Laguna Beach, who has leased the land next to The Pond for 25 years, said Tuesday that he is in final negotiations with an unspecified investor, who would help finance the project. He said more details on financing will be forthcoming next month when he begins the official application process with the city.
Plans call for 250,000 square feet of specialty shops, several nightclubs with music ranging from country to reggae, a comedy club, a micro-brewery and a wedding chapel modeled after St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans’ Jackson Square.
Stanaland said this week that he hopes to create an atmosphere similar to Pleasure Island, a popular nightclub and restaurant district at Walt Disney World in Florida.
Another major feature would be a large, high-tech water show similar to the one in front of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Stanaland said.
Designed by a Dana Point architectural firm called the Theme Works, the Quarter would probably be built in stages, with a targeted opening date of summer 1997. Stanaland said that he hopes to break ground on the project this summer.
“This is a fun project,” he said. “We want it to be a total entertainment experience with unique clubs, restaurants and shops. I think this is a concept that works because there is a tourist base in Anaheim and a residential market in Orange County.”
The land on which the project would be built was once the site of the Orange Tree Mobile Home Estates, a 219-space mobile home park that closed amid controversy in May.
Stanaland said rising vacancy rates, traffic problems and the park’s deteriorating condition were among the reasons why he closed the park. But some residents claim they were driven from the park illegally and are suing Stanaland.
“When The Pond was built, it hurt the mobile home park because it added traffic and changed the atmosphere,” Stanaland said. “But, it also created a lot of potential.”
The developer said his project should complement Anaheim’s plans for an entertainment and retail complex being planned for 125 acres around Anaheim Stadium.
Details of the city’s project, unofficially dubbed “SportsTown,” have not been unveiled but may include a renovation for the Big A, construction of a new stadium and some new hotels.
City officials said Tuesday that they were not aware of the specifics of Stanaland’s plans and could not say whether it would detract from their project.
“On the one hand, there’s a limit to how many restaurants and retail stores an area can support,” said Mayor Tom Daly. “But on the other hand, there’s also a way that competition and variety can actually make for a more successful enterprise for all parties.”
Daly’s feelings were echoed by Greg Smith, manager of Anaheim Stadium and the Convention Center, who also oversees The Pond, which is city-owned but operated by a private company.
“From a city standpoint, the more businesses and things that are offered, the better off we are,” Smith said. “The fact that [Stanaland] is taking property that is not utilized and developing it is a very positive thing.”
Stanaland said he hopes to draw people attending events at The Pond to the new development before or after a concert or a game.
“I think this could help alleviate some of the traffic after a game if people come to the Quarter instead of getting right on the freeway,” Stanaland said. “It may also help with parking at the arena because some people will have dinner, then just walk over.”
Stanaland said the pending legal action against him by the mobile home residents will have no impact on the Quarter. The former residents, led by their homeowners’ association, are suing him for $2 million in relocation benefits, about $10,000 for each tenant.
The class-action lawsuit, filed in April, claims that the residents were illegally driven from the park. It alleges that Stanaland violated state law by announcing the park’s closure in early 1993 without state approval.
The residents are also suing Anaheim for $2 million in relocation benefits on the grounds that almost all of the tenants had already moved out of the park before the City Council approved an action which provided an average of $2,803 in benefits for the tenants that were still there.
