First Demolition, Next New Shopping
The thunderous weekend demolition of the six-story California Federal Bank building was the end of a 35-year-old west Anaheim landmark but the beginning of what city officials hope will be a new era in retailing.
The demolition clears the way for the expansion of Anaheim Plaza, part of the city’s redevelopment of the shopping center as a so-called value-oriented retail center.
The expansion site is at Crescent Avenue and Euclid Street, across from the 42-acre open-air Anaheim Plaza marketplace.
“Even though they’ll have the street dissecting them, it will be one power center,” said Ralf Woebken, Anaheim Plaza general manager. “Anyone driving up and down Euclid will be able to tell that they go hand and hand.”
The first phase of the revitalized shopping center opened in November 1994 with a Wal-Mart discount department store, a CompUSA, Miller’s Outpost and Ross Dress for Less. Mervyn’s and Marie Callender’s were the only two original tenants that remained.
The new Anaheim Plaza now has 25 stores, and two restaurants fronting Euclid are planned for 1997 openings.
“I’m happy to say we’re 100% occupied,” Woebken said.
The second phase on the 9-acre site north of Crescent Avenue will include a 53,000-square-foot Orchard Supply Hardware and a 30,000-square-foot Office Max, Woebken said. Both are already under construction and projected to open by Thanksgiving.
The expansion plans also call for a 3,500-square-foot fast-food restaurant facing Euclid, and a 5,800-square-foot California Federal Bank branch on the same spot as the building demolished Sunday. The bank is set to open in the fall of 1997.
Donahue Schriber, a Newport Beach-based developer, is handling the development and leasing of both phases.
The redevelopment effort began after the shopping center, which opened in the mid-1950s, lost its major anchors: The Broadway and Robinson’s.
Before the project, city officials said, the center’s total annual sales were less than $40 million. For 1995, sales were more than $80 million. With the completion of the second phase, sales are projected to reach $120 million by the end of 1997, officials said.
Mayor Tom Daly characterized the make-over of the shopping center as “a very successful redevelopment project. We expect an even better performance in the next few years as more stores are added.”
