Entertainment-Retail Project Considered in Garden Grove

City officials are making plans to add a 53-acre entertainment-retail complex to one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods. If completed, the redevelopment project would be the largest in the city’s history.

Known as Riverwalk, the aggressive undertaking would replace a 136-unit apartment complex, 22 single-family homes and 46 commercial properties along Harbor Boulevard and Buaro Street, between Chapman Avenue and Garden Grove Boulevard.

Officials are not revealing many details, but they hinted that it centers around a “theme” and involves water. Movie theaters, restaurants and a hotel are uses that have been discussed.

City Manager George Tindall likened the project to the Spectrum in Irvine and Triangle Square in Costa Mesa but said it would be different from anything in the county.

Matt Fertal, director of the Redevelopment Agency, said the project would cost more than $50 million. The developer, OHI Ltd., is working with the city on funding.

Fertal added that property owners in the area have been notified about the project, and the city’s real estate appraisers should begin showing up in the next few weeks.

Councilman Mark Leyes, Redevelopment Agency chairman, said some of the property targeted for the project, including the apartment complex on Buaro Street, is not part of the city’s redevelopment land and will have to be added. The process could take about 12 months, he said.