Anaheim may soon get a bustling retail village similar to L.A. Live in Downtown Los Angeles.
The City Council has approved a $4 billion project by the owners of the Anaheim Ducks to build apartments, hotels, offices and shops and restaurants around the Honda Center at 2695 East Katella Avenue, the Orange County Register reported.
The 95-acre project known as OCVibe would be developed by Henry and Susan Samueli, owners of the NFL hockey team whose organization manages the city-owned Honda Center and the ARTIC transit station.
Plans call for 1,500 apartments, including 195 affordable units for lower-income tenants, at the new urban retail village between the 57 Freeway and the Santa Ana River, north of Angel Stadium.
OCVibe will include 750,000 square feet of offices and 80,000 square feet of retail space, including nearly three dozen restaurants and a food hall.
It would also feature a 5,700-seat concert arena, two hotels containing 550 rooms and 20 acres of open space, including two 5-acre parks.
The development will give the Platinum Triangle, the area around Angel Stadium and the Honda Center, its first large-scale affordable housing and public parks. The concert venue will be the only one of its size in Orange County. Parking for 8,000 cars will be free.
Construction is slated to begin this year, with completion by 2028 when the Honda Center hosts Olympics volleyball.
Up to $400 million in bonds could help pay for the development. The city’s financing authority would issue the bonds, which would be repaid by revenue from the Honda Center. City taxpayers would not be on the hook to cover any payments, according to the Register.
Community benefits will include the affordable housing, parks to be maintained by OCVibe, an on-site solar farm to generate 6 megawatts of power, 3,000 permanent jobs and $6 million a year in sales, property and hotel taxes once it’s fully built out, which could take up to 10 years.
It was a 2018 agreement between the city and the Samuelis that paved the way for OCVibe.
The agreement extended the Samuelis’ management contract through 2048, locking in the Ducks as the hometown hockey team and updating a profit-sharing deal with the city. Anaheim sold 14 acres of parking lots around the arena to the Samuelis for development and let it operate the under-performing ARTIC station.
OCVibe comes in stark contrast to a failed $320 million development deal at Angel Stadium, voided in May after news broke of a federal investigation into alleged corruption by former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu in connection with his negotiations with Angels owner Arte Moreno.
— Dana Bartholomew
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