Orange County: Projects and Developments

[pseudolus]

Originally Posted by friedpez

Valet? Valet. Valet! VALET!!

[friedpez]

Originally Posted by pseudolus

Valet? Valet. Valet! VALET!!

It's Orange County. You can never have enough valet.

[202_Cyclist]

Streetcar plan cleared by OCTA: Light-rail line would get $56 million from local Measure M taxes

BY NICOLE KNIGHT SHINE
Orange Co. Register
Aug. 24, 2015

"In a bid to win federal approval and matching funds for a new foray into light rail, the board of the Orange County Transportation Authority on Monday pledged $56 million in local sales taxes to the OC Streetcar.

With the commitment, the agency stands to gain up to $144 million from a competitive federal grant program called New Starts to spend on the planned $289 million light-rail line. The hop-on, hop-off service would would carry commuters, tourists and shoppers to jobs, stores and the Santa Ana train station, traversing four densely populated miles from Santa Ana to Garden Grove.

Supporters say the streetcar brings much-needed mass transit to car-centric Orange County. Critics contend that ridership estimates of 6,000 passengers per day seem optimistic, and say operating costs will be steep..."

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/o...ion-santa.html

[dragonsky]

Four-diamond JW Marriott proposed for Disneyland area

ANAHEIM – A developer has submitted plans to build a luxury hotel at the GardenWalk mall near Disneyland, becoming the first to take advantage of a hefty city subsidy that aims to entice more-affluent tourists to stay in Anaheim.

The JW Marriott Anaheim would rise 12 stories with 466 guest rooms, ballrooms and meeting rooms on a 2.8-acre dirt lot near Katella Avenue and Clementine Street, within walking distance of Disney’s theme parks and the Convention Center.

It would cost $150 million-plus to build the hotel, largely financed by a 70 percent return on bed taxes collected over 20 years. Opponents have challenged the deal in court.

Despite the ongoing legal battle, developer Bill O’Connell Sr. said that “the time was right to move ahead,” and an applicati

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/a...otel-city.html

[dragonsky]

'Star Wars' sections of 2 Disney parks will break ground in 2016

Walt Disney Co. will break ground on "Star Wars"-themed lands at Disneyland and one of its Florida theme parks in 2016, Chief Operating Officer Thomas Staggs said Thursday.

The 14-acre “Star Wars” areas represent the largest expansions in the Burbank-based company’s history for a single-themed area at its parks. The Florida iteration will be built at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which is part of Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando.

Staggs, who was speaking at the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch 2015 Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference in Beverly Hills, did not say when the “Star Wars” lands would open.

Speaking at D23, Disney Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Iger said the “Star Wars”-themed areas will include a re-creation of the Millennium Falcon, the iconic spacecraft from the film series. Iger said guests would be able to take the controls of the ship for a “customized secret mission.”

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...910-story.html

[dragonsky]

Great Wolf Lodge, a $250 million Garden Grove hotel and water park, set to open in March

GARDEN GROVE – Great Wolf Lodge Southern California, a 603-suite hotel and 105,000-square-foot water park, is now accepting reservations with rooms available starting in March.

It will be Southern California’s first indoor water park and the largest of Great Wolf’s 14 parks. The resort will bring in an estimated $8 million annually in tax revenue to the city, which would be the most from any Garden Grove hotel.

Resort officials gave an inside look into the seven eateries that will occupy space inside the resort, including Bear Paw Sweets & Eats and Dunkin’ Donuts.

Garden Grove officials have said they aren’t worried about Great Wolf’s water usage, pointing out it will operate a state-of-the-art recycling system with mechanized pumps, filters and tanks to purify the water before circulating it back into the park’s common water areas. An estimated 11,000-plus gallons will be lost a day, via dripping bathing suits and evaporation.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/w...olf-great.html

[dragonsky]

• Video Link

[UserName01010]

Phase One of The Element Project (700 residential units) Breaks Ground in Irvine's IBC

Rendering:



^Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/i...s-traffic.html



Image taken by me

..."The Element is a mixed use project located in the City of Irvine's IBC district. The Element is a phased project consisting of three phases where the total units will be 1,600 residential units. The breakdown of each phase pertains to Phase 1 having 700 residential units and the project site is 10 acres. Amenities would include a public park and other amenities for the future residents. Phase 2 would have 307 residential units and amenities for future residents. Phase 3, the last phase, would have 593 residential units and is where the mixed use component will be located"...

Source: http://orangecountydensedevelopment....oject-700.html

[dragonsky]

Outlets at San Clemente off the I-5 will finally open in November

http://www.outletsatsanclemente.com/
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/o...staurants.html

[dragonsky]

Anaheim set to get another luxury hotel near Disneyland

ANAHEIM – A developer has submitted plans to demolish the Anaheim Plaza Hotel & Suites and build a luxury hotel on the site – the first to take advantage of a citywide subsidy that would help pay for the project.

Good Hope International, an affiliate of the Wincome Group, could start construction next year on a 580-room hotel standing more than 78 feet tall, with 25,600 square feet of retail and 50,000 square feet of meeting space.

While the luxury brand has not been announced, the proposed hotel would be built on 8.8 acres of land near Harbor Boulevard and Disney Way and open sometime in 2018, according to a development plan delivered Tuesday to Anaheim’s Planning Department.

It would cost more than $160 million to build the hotel, financed in large part by a 70 percent return on bed taxes collected there over 20 years under a relatively new economic incentive aimed at encouraging developers to build hotels that meet AAA’s guidelines for four-diamond ratings.

At the end of the agreement, the city would collect 100 percent of the bed taxes generated by the hotel.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/h...im-luxury.html

[dragonsky]

O.C.'s newest mall, Pacific City, is open, but with fewer vendors ready than expected

The opening day at Pacific City in Huntington Beach arrived Thursday with a lot of excitement but few stores ready for business.

The $135 million retail development, located a block south of the city’s iconic pier, is part of a 31-acre hotel, retail and residential project.

At full capacity, the 191,000-square-foot, open-air center will have 60 stores and restaurants. On Thursday, a handful of retail stores debuted.

The fitness center Equinox and retailers West of Camden, Saavy Naturals, The Wearhouse, Cherry Hills, Chico Hats, and The Nook opened as scheduled. Irene’s Story was expected to open Thursday evening. The PC Residence Design Center opened for prospective tenants to tour future apartments at the site.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/c...e-pacific.html

[dragonsky]

• Video Link

[dragonsky]

Star Wars at Disneyland: Get first look at rides, merchandise, food as Darth Vader, Chewbacca and more takes over Tomorrowland

A very tall, very hairy Chewbacca offers hugs and responds to questions with his trademark roar inside Star Wars Launch Bay, which has landed in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland Expo Center, the new name for the once-dormant Innoventions building.

Space Mountain becomes Hyperspace Mountain, with the iconic “Star Wars” score blasting as scenes of Imperial fighters flash in the starry sky.

And riders of the nearly 30-year-old Star Tours glimpse footage from the not-yet-released “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

Season of the Force, a “Star Wars”-themed takeover of Tomorrowland will open to the public Monday – a month before the franchise’s seventh film premieres and at least a couple years before a full “Star Wars”-themed land debuts at Disneyland.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/s...ars-force.html

[UserName01010]

Some news update regarding OBP. According to the City of Santa Ana's "Search Plan Check Status" webpage, developer of OBP applied for a foundation only permit back in 05/05/2015. This permit was issued in 09/08/2015. I have not yet been able to visit the site to see if there is any activity, but will do so when possible. If anyone happens to be in that area, please check it out.

Source: http://ww3.santa-ana.org/DynamicPage...perty_id=61116

[dragonsky]

Ducks close in on approval for four Great Park ice rinks, team training facility

the construction of a 270,000-square foot public ice facility and Anaheim Ducks training center, in a region where interest in ice-based sports is growing – might soon become reality.

On Tuesday, the Irvine City Council will consider a proposal by the Ducks to, via a new nonprofit organization, erect a community ice complex with four rinks at the Great Park. Councilman Jeff Lalloway said it will cost $30 million to $40 million to build and, according to city staffers, would be one of the largest of its kind in the nation.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/i...city-park.html

[dragonsky]

The Downtown Disney makeover will be a big job for Christie, and she’ll focus on that primarily this winter since not much else is happening in DCA next year. The remake of Luigi’s Flying Tires into a much simpler spinner ride is already done, the state inspectors will approve it for operation in two weeks, and the ride is planned to soft open before Christmas. The proposal to add Marvel Studios to DCA on the expansion plot north of Tower of Terror was sent back to the drawing boards this past summer, but is once again moving ahead. The indoor mega-coaster planned as the lands new E Ticket was wowing the designers but underwhelming the Anaheim operators.

The Anaheim team has been getting more and more disappointed with WDI’s latest creations that are big on excitement but very short on hourly capacity to handle Anaheim’s ever-growing crowds. Long gone are the days when WDI built custom E Tickets that can handle 2,500 or more riders per hour. Today they can spend $300 Million building something like Radiator Springs Racers that struggles to break 1,500 riders per hour, and the entire park experience suffers because of decisions which don’t take into account the paying customers waiting in slow moving lines.

While the coaster concept has gone back for a rework, the plan now is to open the Marvel expansion in two phases, with a series of themed meet n’ greet and merchandise offerings opening first before Star Wars Land can open in 2019. Then the Marvel coaster would open a year or two later, after Star Wars Land. That plan is the reason why Superhero HQ in Tomorrowland only got a light rework for its debut last month, as it’s not planned to be a facility that exists much past 2017.

What has been successful is the novel twice-per-night fireworks shows that Disneyland tested last week. The hope was that it would relieve nighttime crowds and balance people across both parks, and it did just that. Peak in-park numbers were happening around 6:00PM and then after the first fireworks shows thousands of people were heading over to DCA while Disneyland’s in-park attendance moderated noticeably by the second fireworks show. It’s something they’ll only be able to do this time of year when the sun sets early, but it seems to have done the trick and will likely reappear for the busy two weeks of Christmas and New Year’s.

There is no Disney property that can come close to the amount of nightly entertainment that Disneyland Resort has, with five parades and four water shows and two fireworks spectaculars per night, plus the Anaheim exclusives like Mad T Party, Viva Navidad, etc. It was a smart move on Mary Niven’s part to take the chance and try to play to all those strengths instead of fighting against them as the Anaheim parks had been doing for the last decade. Gambles like that show that Mary Niven is a great choice to take on the new Senior VP of Operations job. Let’s just hope Mary can keep ahead of the mall executives waiting in the wings in 2016.

http://micechat.com/116178-miceage-d...ate-star-wars/

[dragonsky]

• Video Link

Meet the legendary ride maker that invented the modern theme park

Started in a machine shop in Mountain View, Arrow made truck parts and tools shortly after World War II before building carousels for small Northern California amusement parks.

Everything changed for Arrow when Walt Disney entered the picture. Disney turned to Arrow to modify a carousel for a first-of-its-kind theme park he was building in Anaheim. Arrow went on to build the Mad Tea Party, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Snow White’s Scary Adventure, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Casey Jr. Circus Train and Autopia in advance of Disneyland’s 1955 grand opening.

Where other companies would have folded, Arrow reinvented itself and developed the world’s first modern inversion coaster, once again designed by Toomer. The Corkscrew debuted in 1975 at Knott’s Berry Farm and immediately kicked off a coaster war that continues to this day.

Arrow took one final home-run swing in 2002 at Six Flags Magic Mountain with X, the world’s first fourth dimension coaster, featuring seats that rotate 360 degrees forward and backward.

Designed by Alan Schilke, the revolutionary ride was ultimately deemed a failure before being rebuilt and rechristened X2 in 2008. Schilke later went on to team up with Rocky Mountain Construction on a string of looping wooden coasters and S&S Worldwide on the 570-foot-tall Polercoaster.

http://www.latimes.com/travel/themep...104-story.html

[dragonsky]

Disneyland officials today released concept art for Rivers of America that includes a new waterfront and waterfalls along the north bank of the river and an elevated railroad track route over the water where the Disneyland Railroad will travel.

Walt Disney Imagineering’s concept shows the Disneyland Railroad riding on trestles across the north part of the rivers, passing several waterfalls as it makes its way around that part of the park. The Mark Twain can be seen around the river bend, as well as someone on a raft heading to Pirate’s Lair.

The Rivers of America was one of Walt Disney’s original attractions when the park opened in 1955. The rivers represent the Mississippi, the Columbia, the Potomac and the Rio Grande.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/d...ad-rivers.html

[UserName01010]

Greetings! I would like to say that Orange County Dense Developments blog is no more, but in its place, is a more revamped website and is now called LA OC Development Buzz. I invite everyone to check it out at http://www.laocdb.com

Please let me know what you guys think of the new website

[UserName01010]

By: Chad Kim

Harbor Walk is an upcoming mixed use apartment project located near Downtown Fullerton at 770 S. Harbor Boulevard. The developer of this project is PLC Land Company: Christopher Homes and the architect is Architects Orange.

Link: http://www.laocdb.com/harbor-walk-an...town-fullerton