EDITORIALS:Triangle Square has potential but needs makeover

How is it that a commercial center on the corner of Newport Boulevard — right off the 55 Freeway — and 19th Street can struggle so mightily?

Scores of cars trek by the site every day.

Throngs of shoppers (and eaters and drinkers) are meandering up and down the boulevard at any given hour.

The beach is about five minutes away.

Fashion Island and South Coast Plaza are fewer than 20.

Nevertheless, 15-year-old Triangle Square has a 40% retail occupancy rate and has lost a number of tenants, including Niketown, Virgin Megastore and Barnes & Noble, in recent years.

Triangle Square — the name itself perplexes — has never lived up to its original billing.

But that may change.

Greenlaw Partners, a Newport Beach-based firm that co-purchased the property last year, has announced plans to renovate “The Square.”

How so?

The improvements would include 120 housing units with a pool, fitness center and lounge, 13 live-work units that would permit business owners to live above their stores and a redesign of the exteriors and pedestrian walkways.

The owners also plan to demolish the Edwards movie theater and approximately 78,500 square feet of retail space (nearly half of the mall’s total area).

Wow.

Already, there are legitimate questions from the public.

How does the Great Tunnel, which some council members have broached, and which would divert tens of thousands of cars from the 55 Freeway directly into Newport Beach, and away from the intersection, figure into the proposal?

What kind of businesses are going to be compatible with the mix of businesses already there?

Won’t building residential units exacerbate the traffic problems in the area?

Despite these concerns, and though we wouldn’t be excited to see the movie theater go, we agree Triangle Square needs a makeover.

And the Westside needs a hub of commercial activity.

Greenlaw’s plans still must go before City Council for approval, but the company says that, if all goes well, it could wrap up construction by 2010.

Let’s hope something can be worked out that turns Triangle Square into a thriving hub of activity and an attractive gateway to the Westside, without worsening traffic.