GardenWalk Soon to Rise in Anaheim
After six years of stops and starts, developers will begin knocking down buildings this month to make way for Anaheim GardenWalk, an ambitious, $600-million project that promises four upscale hotels, an aquarium, shops and a slate of popular restaurants--all near Disneyland and the renovated Convention Center.
Last week the City Council jump-started the project, once known as Pointe Anaheim, unanimously approving it after sweetening the deal with revenue incentives and a lease agreement that will cost the city as much as $30 million over 10 years.
In return, GardenWalk developers say, their project will create thousands of jobs and generate more than $113 million for the city in sales and hotel tax revenue.
“It will be the largest project in Anaheim other than Disney,” said Robert Shelton, manager of pre-development for the project.
“It will provide an additional visitor amenity that will help the Anaheim resort to extend the length of stay and attract more convention business to town. From a local perspective, it will provide ... a great place to take the family out for an evening.”
This is the latest in an ongoing effort to beef up the Anaheim resort area, now home to two Disney theme parks and a remade city convention center that bills itself as the largest on the West Coast and one of the biggest in the nation.
Since 1996, more than $6 billion in public and private money has been spent to update the Anaheim resort, once known for its campy, old-fashioned hotels lining Harbor Boulevard.
“The success of Downtown Disney [a shopping and entertainment center next to the amusement parks] has proved beyond any doubt that there is a strong market for shopping and restaurants with varied entertainment thrown in,” said Mayor Tom Daly. “We have wanted more upscale shopping and restaurants, and this project brings all that and more.”
The city took a major hit in tourism after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks; its bonds were even put on credit watch and city officials were asked to start making budget cuts. Some analysts and economists wondered if Anaheim--like Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla.--had become too tourist-dependent.
But, according to projections, the area is not oversaturated with hotels and should be able to support new hotels, said Los Angeles hotel expert Bruce Baltin of PKF Consulting.
Bill Stone, senior vice president for development of the Price Legacy Corp., which owns Excel Pointe Anaheim LLC, said GardenWalk will meet the city’s needs for a major retail center and luxury hotels similar to Disney’s new Grand Californian.
Price Legacy scrapped original plans for Pointe Anaheim, once envisioned as a collection of shops, hotels and live theaters.
With two new architecture firms on board--WAT&G; and Callison Architecture--it’s been re-themed with lush gardens, waterfalls and fountains.
They’re calling it “fusion architecture.” Not exactly Italian or Spanish or Mediterranean, but a mix of everything. There are plans for something like the Spanish Steps in Rome, ascending seamlessly from one level to the next and bordered with plants and flowers. There might even be a small orange grove, as well as trellises with climbing bougainvillea.
“It won’t be like Las Vegas,” said architect Greg Coghill of WAT&G.; “It will be a contemporary statement of old-village expressions.”
The project will be built in five phases, said Shelton, the pre-development manager.
Groundbreaking for the first phase, which includes restaurants and shops--and possibly the first hotel and the aquarium--could begin in the spring.
Despite buzz over the new development, one hold-out property owner could complicate plans. Pyrovest, a California corporation owned by a billionaire from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, who also owns casinos and the Star and Norwegian cruise lines, holds title to nine acres planned as part of GardenWalk. Sixteen other property owners already have sold their land to the developers.
Pyrovest attorney Joel Kew said developers have sold the GardenWalk concept by billing it as “gate-to-gate promenade shopping,” from the Disneyland main gate to the gates for Disney’s third planned theme park.
But the Pyrovest property, now home to the Anaheim Plaza Hotel & Suites, is the acreage that links Disneyland to the other land.
“In its current configuration, it’s a promenade to nowhere,” Kew said. “Would you ever walk down that portion of a mall that leads to Nordstrom if Nordstrom isn’t there? Disneyland is the ultimate Nordstrom. That’s what people want to walk to. If you can’t get there, then what’s the point of promenade shopping?”
Pyrovest and Pointe Anaheim are fighting it out in court. The developers say they can compel sale based on fraudulent conduct and breaches of contract. But Kew said he does not believe they have any legal arguments.
Meanwhile, GardenWalk’s first-phase construction will proceed--with or without the coveted property.
More than $50 million has already been invested in property acquisition and design plans. Shelton said the developers still hope they can reach an agreement or win their lawsuit.
Mayor Daly said he also believes an agreement will be reached and that GardenWalk will eventually help the resort reach its full potential. Regardless of the legal battles, the city only stands to gain, he said.
“There is not $1 of risk to the city in this project,” Daly said. “If the project never comes out of the ground, it will be a missed opportunity, but there’s no risk.”
