Orange : Redevelopment Project Given ‘Last Touches’

The Villa Park Plaza Center on North Tustin Street has become the first commercial center to be renovated under the Tustin Street Redevelopment Project, a program the City of Orange hopes will increase its economic growth and encourage property owners to reinvest in the area.

Workers are putting “the last touches” on the 16,000-square-foot center, which boasts a new facade, landscaping and signs, said Steve Hayes, principal redevelopment planner with the Orange Redevelopment Agency.

The center was built in 1963 and is owned by Villa Park Plaza Partners Ltd.

The revitalization area is generally bounded by Tustin Street on the east, Lincoln Avenue on the west, Katella Avenue on the north and Adams Street on the south.

Nearly a dozen other centers are part of the program. Renovation on some is almost completed. Briardale Center should be complete by the end of August, and multiphase construction on Olive Court--one of the largest centers in the project area--is scheduled to begin in August, Hayes said.

About 35% of the project area’s 1,000 businesses are participating in the program, which offers grants and 3% loans, financed over 10 years. Each business will receive a 20% rebate when the loan is repaid, Hayes said.

Moreover, the Redevelopment Agency pays half the cost of businesses’ new signs, and developers receive a 3% loan over 10 years to pay their share of the signs’ costs, he said.

When the area is completely revitalized, public and private investments will total about $6 million, Hayes said.

“We’ve had a real good response so far,” Hayes said. “This was a major goal of our redevelopment plan, and it’s just gonna happen now. It’s well under way.”