Last Walls Fall; Now City Can See What Develops

Clearing the way for a $24-million redevelopment project on Main Street, demolition crews this week leveled a former bank and office building--the last structures remaining on the site.

Officials said construction is set to begin by year’s end on a condominium and commercial project called Plaza Almeria in the block bounded by Main and Fifth streets and Olive and Orange avenues.

The redevelopment project, the city’s first in five years, “will be a big contribution to the downtown,” said Stephen Kohler, project manager for the city’s economic development department. “We will have life and vigor on that block, where before it was vacant.”

JT Development of Huntington Beach is building the project, which calls for 40,000 square feet of commercial space fronting Main Street.

Company President John H. Tillotson Jr. said the two-story building will have office space upstairs and retail space on the lower floor for tenants such as a specialty market, restaurant, boutique and art gallery.

The project was approved in 1991 with 28,000 square feet of commercial space, but the developer has asked the city to allow 12,000 square feet more. Tillotson said the company also wants to build 63 condominiums, rather than the 68 units approved, but to make them bigger.

The changes will be considered by the Planning Commission later this summer.

Named after a coastal city in Spain, Plaza Almeria will reflect the architecture of that region, Tillotson said, with red tile roofs, turrets, arches, colorful tile, wrought-iron balconies, awnings and decorative fountains.

“Our vision is to make it seem like it was built 100 years ago,” he said.

Kohler said the developer will pay the city agency $4.6 million for the land and associated costs to clear the site.

Yet to be resolved, he said, is how to clean up contaminated soil on a portion of the property at Main and Olive. He said the city is negotiating with the former property owners and state agencies to resolve the matter.

Tillotson said his company hopes to complete the commercial portion of the project by late next summer and the homes by fall.

“For seven years, I’ve seen the downtown evolve,” Tillotson said. Plaza Almeria, he said, will be “a natural progression of the revitalization of Huntington Beach. It’s been a slow and difficult process, but now it’s moving forward.”