Developer Harrah ready to launch 15-story apartment tower, hotel in Santa Ana

A high-rise project bringing apartments, retail, restaurants, hotel rooms and meeting space to the historic heart of downtown Santa Ana is on the verge of becoming reality after a decade of dreaming, planning and public debate.

Developer Michael Harrah pulled 60 permits on Dec. 1 covering every phase of the mixed-use project, from demolition of an aging parking structure now lodged on the development site through outdoor lighting installation at the tail end of construction.

Work on the two-year, $100 million-plus project is expected to start next spring.

“We’re building a high-rise in the middle of Santa Ana,” the 6-foot-5 investor with the ZZ Top beard said during a visit to the project site at West Third Street and North Broadway on Dec. 19.

Pointing out the new OC Streetcar line and Fourth Street Latino district a block to the north and the trendy Artist’s Village a block to the south, Harrah exclaimed, “It’s in the middle of everything.”

The “3rd & Broadway Promenade” project will include a 15-story apartment tower, with shopping and eateries on the ground floor, plus a 10-story hotel.

Santa Ana’s once sleepy downtown has come a long way in the past 30 years. Renovated buildings, new apartments, bars, restaurants, not to mention the Artists Village, now populate the district.

The new high-rise project “is part of the gentrification of downtown that’s been going on for years,” said Ron Nestor of William Hezmalhalch Architects, who used to work in the area and designed renovations for several historic buildings there. “It’s going to enrich the area. … It’s a great location.”

The high-density, highly walkable project also is part of a regional and national trend, said Richard Gollis, a principal and founder of real estate consulting firm The Concord Group. Similar developments are cropping up in downtown Anaheim, the Irvine Business Complex and near South Coast Plaza.

“These major areas of Orange County are centers of population density and have good bones of urban streets and walkability,” Gollis said. “It’s really about Orange County growing up.”

The new apartment building will have 171 units, more than 13,400 square feet of shops and restaurants, a rooftop pool and another swimming pool on the seventh floor.

Harrah’s company, Caribou Industries, and city documents refer to the 194-foot-tall structure as having 16 stories. But it’s actually 15 floors because it won’t have a 13th floor to appease triskaidekaphobic patrons. Even so, the new tower still will surpass the neighboring Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse by 18 feet.

The building will include 19 affordable units for very-low-income tenants in exchange for increasing the project’s density.

See also: Santa Ana approves development that could remake downtown

The new hotel, measuring 128 feet tall, will have 75 rooms and a rooftop restaurant, Harrah said.

“We have all the permits. We have the loans,” he said. “We could start tomorrow. We’re just waiting for (interest) rates to come down.”

The buildings will straddle a new section of Sycamore Street now covered by the three-story, concrete parking garage.

Over objections of some residents, the city donated the 61,000-square-foot parcel to the project, valued at about $3 million when it approved the project in 2020. In addition, the city will provide a $13 million subsidy to cover the cost of demolishing the parking structure and other expenses.

The development will include 196 new parking spaces for apartment residents, 83 for the hotel, plus 211 public parking spots on the first six lower levels of the new structure, including one subterranean floor, the company said.

Caribou will have the option of converting the hotel to residential units if the lodging fails to turn a profit in the first few years.

See also: Amazon buys old Register printing plant for $63.2 million

The Santa Ana City Council voted to approve the conversion of “underused land” into a mixed-used project in late 2020. But planning for the project dates back to 2014 when the city council directed staff to seek proposals for redeveloping the parking garage.

Caribou was one of five applicants, but the only one whose proposal included a hotel, according to a city report.

It’s just the latest in a long line of Santa Ana projects by Harrah, who at one point owned more than 60 properties in the city. He still owns the former Orange County Register office mid-rise along the 5 freeway. He sold the newspaper’s former printing plant to Amazon, which is building a last-mile distribution center on the land.

For two decades, Harrah also has been pursuing his still-unfulfilled dream of building One Broadway Plaza, a 37-story high-rise including apartments and offices. If built, it would be Orange County’s tallest skyscraper.

By the time the downtown high-rise plan came up for a city vote three years ago, local government had received dozens of letters opposing the land giveaway and subsidies. Trade unions and business interests expressed support, saying the project would revitalize downtown and create jobs.

Then-Mayor Miguel Pulido defended the city’s agreement with Caribou, saying it will “redefine the downtown.”

“We’re giving nothing up,” Pulido said. “We’re giving up a piece of land that would be a burden, …and we’re getting a developer through a public-private partnership to invest hundreds of millions of dollars.”