MainPlace Mall renovation up for public hearing in Santa Ana

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- A new look is in the works for MainPlace Mall in Santa Ana, and it was scheduled to go before the City Council for public hearing Tuesday.

Jose Rico lived a short walk away in the quiet Park Santiago community, and he said there's good and bad with the MainPlace Mall Transformation Project.

"It's going to be complicated, I think, for everybody around," Rico said.

The CEO of Centennial Real Estate, Steven Levin, said the company bought MainPlace along with four other malls nearly four years ago.

Levin said the project is a long-term investment in the city of Santa Ana to transform it for the next decade or two.

"A gathering place, a destination that provided shopping, dining, entertainment, living, working and playing all in one destination," Levin said.

Levin said he worked closely with the city, business owners and people living in the surrounding communities on the plan which includes up to 400 hotel rooms, 750,000 square feet of office space, 1.4 million square feet of commercial space and 1,900 residential units.

The city's executive director of planning, Minh Thai, said the project included indoor-outdoor public space where all in Santa Ana were welcome to gather.

"In terms of the type of housing, we envision that there'll be both rental and for-sale products. There will be urban living environment, so it's not your single family home. It's really more of an urban living environment," Thai said,

Though he's happy to see the growth, Rico said those who liked to relax in his neighborhood may not be happy if they see increased traffic in the area.

The project was scheduled for city council public hearing on Tuesday and for a second vote June 18.

The city's senior planner said if approved, the construction would begin as early as mid-July 2019.