Anaheim Ducks owners swap offices for homes at retail village

Anaheim Ducks Owners Swap Offices for Homes Near Arena

Henry and Susan Samueli, owners of the Anaheim Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli along with a rendering of OCVibe at 2695 East Katella Avenue in Anaheim (Getty, OCVibe)

The owners of the Anaheim Ducks have shifted plans for a $4 billion retail village in Anaheim with fewer offices and more homes.

Henry and Susan Samueli, owners of the NFL hockey team, have filed revised plans to replace 385,000 square feet of existing offices with 750 homes within the 95-acre project surrounding the Honda Center at 2695 East Katella Avenue, the Orange County Business Journal reported.

The project, dubbed OCVibe, was approved in October 2022 for a bustling retail village similar to L.A. Live, with apartments, hotels, offices, shops and restaurants. The Samuelis manage the city-owned Honda Center arena, home of the Ducks, as well as the ARTIC transit station.

Citing “market conditions,” its developers have now filed preliminary plans to demolish the three-building, 385,000-square-foot Arena Corporate Center at 1400-1600 South Douglass Road and replace it with 750 homes.

The developers are also considering cutting a proposed outdoor amphitheater and replacing it with a park.

H&S Ventures, controlled by Broadcom Chairman Henry Samueli and his wife, Susan, bought the office campus in 2018 for $125.5 million, or $326 per square foot.

If the offices-for-homes swap is approved, the urban retail village planned between the 57 Freeway and the Santa Ana River would contain 2,250 homes, of which 15 percent would be affordable for low-income households.

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The Arena Corporate Center, built in 2003, is now home to a Platt College campus, with such tenants as UCI Health and the Anaheim Ducks. An initial proposal for OCVibe called for a renovated campus around a wellness park.

A new office tenant could alter the scale of its demolition, allowing for fewer homes, according to the Business Journal. The level of occupancy at the Arena was not disclosed.

OCVibe was approved for 1,500 homes; 1.1 million square feet of offices, including a new 325,000-square-foot office building; 230,000 square feet of retail, including three dozen restaurants plus a food hall; two hotels with 550 rooms; a 5,700-seat concert arena; 11,000 parking slots, plus 20 acres of parks and walkways.

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The developer broke ground last year for infrastructure improvements. A timeline for the project was not disclosed.

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 them operate the under-performing ARTIC train station.

— Dana Bartholomew