Regency Theatres has closed its multiplex in Santa Ana ahead of plans by C.J. Segerstrom & Sons and Hines to redevelop a shopping center with a 1,600-home urban village.
The Calabasas-based theater chain shuttered the South Coast Village Cinemas at 1561 Sunflower Avenue, the Orange County Register reported.
The theater site is within the 17.2-acre South Coast Plaza Village, a shopping center at 1621 Sunflower Avenue that is slated for redevelopment north of Segerstrom’s South Coast Plaza mall.
Pending approvals, Costa Mesa-based Segerstrom and Houston-based Hines plan to replace the 100,000-square-foot retail center built in the 1970s with a 1.9 million-square-foot mixed-use development.
The project, dubbed The Village Santa Ana, would include 1,583 homes, up to 300,000 square feet of offices and up to 80,000 square feet of shops and restaurants.
If approved, the project would take five phases and two decades to complete, depending on market conditions, according to a 2023 filing.
When finished, Village Santa Ana would include 3.3 acres of open space, including an outdoor event area, bike paths and a fitness loop, and parking for 3,520 cars.
Nearby South Coast Plaza, the nation’s largest luxury mall, is owned by the 127-year-old Segerstrom. It’s also next door to a major shopping center redevelopment planned by the Callens family and Irvine-based Related California.
The 42-acre project, dubbed Related Bristol, would replace the 460,000-square-foot Metro Town Square at 3694 South Plaza Drive in Santa Ana. Plans call for 3,750 apartments, 200 senior housing units, 350,000 square feet of offices, shops and restaurants and a 250-room hotel.
The Village and Related Bristol are among the largest pending developments in OC. Together, they could result in the construction of more than 5,300 homes between Sunflower Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard.
United Artists opened South Coast Village Cinemas in 1971 as the UA Cinemas 1-2-3, and renovated it in 2007, according to Cinema Treasures. It’s not clear when it was taken over by Regency Theatres.
Regency Theatres, co-founded in 1996 by the Golin family, once operated 29 movie theaters with a total of 195 screens in Southern California, according to a 2012 biography. It now has 15 theaters in California and one in Arizona, according to its website.
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