Changes planned at Town Center

Lolita Harper

Segerstrom officials, who compare their shift in plans for the Town

Center Project with musical chairs, hope to have all the components

in the right place when the music stops tonight at City Hall.

Slight tweaks to the already approved plans for the 3300 and 3400

blocks of Bristol Street call to move the proposed hotel and office

building to different corners of the project area, which saves the

popular Scott’s Seafood restaurant from demolition, said Paul

Freeman, spokesman for C.J. Segerstrom & Sons development company.

“There are really no substantive changes, other than the precise

locations on the same quadrant,” Freeman said. “We got plans approved

and a development agreement for a new office building and a new hotel

and we are doing the exact same thing, in terms of use and project.”

Because of the bankruptcy of Edwards Cinemas, Segerstrom officials

looked to reconfigure the project, noting that it made more sense to

demolish an empty building than an established restaurant. So,

Scott’s stays, the proposed hotel moves to 3400 Bristol St., and the

existing office buildings get revamped, losing 3,000 square feet.

“When Edwards went away, we had the chance for optimal

configuration,” Freeman said. “Plus, [we] like Scott’s.”

The 24.59-acre project was approved in February 2001 for 1,522,815

square feet of office space, 5,145 square feet of retail space,

516,000 square feet of hotel space -- which includes the existing

Westin -- and 43,090 square feet of restaurants, a health club and

plaza tower, city planning officials said.

Segerstrom officials are cutting back on office space to add a few

more rooms -- from 186 to 200 -- to the new hotel. With the

demolition of the movie theater, which was to stay originally, the

project density remains within city guidelines, according to a staff

report.

Consultants from Linscott, Law & Greenspan -- hired to evaluate

the difference in traffic regarding the new plans -- said trips to

the reconfigured Town Center project would decrease 466 per day. The

difference is largely in the anticipated night traffic, which

consultants predict to thin out without the movie theater.

* LOLITA HARPER writes columns Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and

covers culture and the arts. She may be reached at (949) 574-4275 or

by e-mail at [email protected].