Library, Cultural Hub Proposed in Garden Grove’s Little Saigon

A small, nonprofit group has proposed building a $10-million Vietnamese library and cultural center on three acres of city-owned land in Garden Grove, signaling the further expansion of Little Saigon, Orange County’s rapidly growing Vietnamese American community.

If approved, the project would plant a large and significant Vietnamese cultural anchor in Garden Grove, which in recent years has begun to rival adjacent Westminster as the heart of the nation’s Vietnamese American community.

The proposal, which Garden Grove officials described as ambitious, includes two buildings. One, called Vong Quoc Mieu, or Temple of the Founding Fathers, would be a cultural and historical research center patterned after traditional Vietnamese architecture.

The other would be a four-story structure holding a restaurant, offices, performance and conference space, a library and museum. The complex would total nearly 100,000 square feet.

The site is part of a 16.5-acre area the city has designated the Brookhurst Triangle, and for which it has already received at least eight proposed master plans. The Vietnamese Library and Cultural Center, if approved, would have to be included in one of the broader plans, city officials said.

The City Council was scheduled to begin considering those master plans next month, said Glenn Kreiger, Garden Grove’s economic development director. “There will be a lot on the table to mull over, including this proposal,” he said.

Although fund-raising isn’t expected to start in earnest until fall, organizers have already put together a brochure that refers to a pledge by city officials to donate the three-acre parcel.

“It’s not something concrete, like they’ve already transferred the land to us,” said Phat Bui, spokesman for Nhan Ai Foundation, which submitted the proposal. “It’s a pledge.”

The city, though, has not made any promises. Mayor Bruce Broadwater and Councilman Van Thai Tran have endorsed the project, but their letter to the Nhan Ai Foundation only voices their interest and says they will help promote the proposal.

Broadwater described the project Monday as in the “early discussion” stage

“We’re talking with a lot of other people about this same piece of property,” Broadwater said. “We’re hoping everything will work out. It depends on how it all comes together.”

Broadwater described the proposed library and community center as a potentially welcome addition to the city.

“It will be something on the level of the Nixon Library,” he said, and would recognize “our history of the Vietnam War and the history of the refugees coming here and how they’ve worked out.”

Bui said organizers hope the center will become the cultural anchor of the Vietnamese American community. They also hope other ethnic communities in the region will rent its performance halls and other spaces for events.

Bui said organizers have raised $400,000 to launch planning for the project and plan a broad appeal to corporations and individuals for the $10 million needed for construction. As envisioned, he said, operating expenses would come from the restaurant, rental fees and other sources.

Bui estimated it would take five years to complete the project.

Nhan Ai has operated a small library in Santa Ana for four years, and its 30,000-volume collection would form the core of the proposed center’s holdings, Bui said.

The last prominent project within the Vietnamese American community, a war memorial in Westminster, nearly collapsed because of political bickering, distrust by donors of the project’s management and shifting fund-raising goals. The $1.1-million project opened in April, five months late.

Bui said the organizers hope to avoid similar problems by involving community leaders and outside advisors.

Also, he said, organizers plan to establish two funds, one that would pay for planning and promotion and the other for construction.

“By separating the two funds we would be able to avoid some of the problems that have surfaced in the past,” Bui said.