Related California eager for OK on retail village in Santa Ana

Planning Commission to consider Related Bristol to replace 42-acre shopping center

Related California eager for OK on Santa Ana retail village
Related California's William Witte and 3694 South Plaza Drive, Santa Ana (City of Santa Ana, Related California)

Related California has moved forward with plans to replace a shopping center in Santa Ana with an urban retail village with nearly 4,000 homes north of South Coast Plaza.

The Santa Ana Planning Commission will consider plans by the Irvine-based developer to redevelop the Metro Town Square at 3694 South Plaza Drive, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

The project, dubbed Related ­Bristol, would replace the 460,000-square-foot shopping center, which includes a Vons supermarket on the east side of Bristol Street, between MacArthur Boulevard and Sunflower Avenue. The center has nearly 100 tenants, whose leases expire next year.

Related California eager for OK on Santa Ana retail village
Rendering of plans for 3694 South Plaza Drive, Santa Ana (City of Santa Ana)

Related has agreed to assume a 99-year ground lease for the land, owned by the Callens family for more than a century.

Plans call for 3,750 apartments, 200 senior housing units, 350,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, a 250-room hotel and 13 acres of parks, plazas and paseos. A parking garage would serve 6,250 cars.

The project, designed by Elkus Manfredi, Robert A.M. Stern Architects and Rios, would be split into 21 separate blocks, organized around new streets and plazas. Most buildings would range from one to seven stories, though some could rise to 25 stories, according to Urbanize.

Pending approvals, Related could break ground in 2026 and complete the project in phases by 2036, with work beginning at the south end.

Related California eager for OK on Santa Ana retail village
Rendering of plans for 3694 South Plaza Drive, Santa Ana (City of Santa Ana)

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In exchange for project approval, Related has proposed a $22 million community benefits package with the City of Santa Ana, including room for a police substation.

Related California, a unit of New York-based Related Companies founded in 1989, has developed more than 20,700 homes, with more than 4,600 affordable and 7,200 market-rate units in the pipeline, according to its website. 

Related Bristol is one of two large, multi-phase developments slated to replace shopping centers in Santa Ana.

South of Metro Town Square, Costa Mesa-based C.J. Segerstrom & Sons and Houston-based Hines plan to replace the 17-acre South Coast Plaza Village at 1621 Sunflower Avenue with a 1.9 million-square-foot mixed-use village

The project, dubbed The Village Santa Ana, would have 1,583 homes, 300,000 square feet of offices and up to 80,000 square feet of shops and restaurants.

— Dana Bartholomew

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