CALIFORNIA TEAMING

City of Brea and CIM Group Create

Birch Street Promenade

SHOPPING EXCITEMENT ON THE STREET

An old California town with a dream of downtown revitalization  and a modern developer with many street environment successes under its wingspan have joined forces to make the town’s dream of an enriched street community come true.  As part of the City of Brea’s $100-million  downtown revitalization plan, it has teamed up with the CIM Group LLC to develop the Birch Street Promenade.  

 

The CIM Group, headquartered in Los Angeles, California, is one of the nation’s leading street environment developers.  It has spearheaded retail environments for pedestrians in some of Southern California’s most popular cities, including the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, Old Town in Pasadena, and the Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego.

 

To develop the City of Brea’s Birch Street Promenade project, the CIM Group formed an entirely new affiliated California corporation, CIM/Brea Inc.  The Birch Street Promenade is the final phase and focal point of an urban renovation that has turned Brea’s once blighted downtown area into a showplace that has been years in the making.

 

The City of Brea is located in northern Orange County, California, 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles. Far from simply being a suburb of its larger neighbor, Brea has maintained its own identity as a separate town. The word “Brea” means tar in Spanish, and the city was known to native Americans and pioneers as a place where tar seeped out of the ground. Of course, the tar was indicative of underground oil, and the first oil well was drilled in 1898. Since then, Brea has grown from an oil-boom tent city to an incorporated entity boasting a population of approximately 34,000 with an upscale average income of $61,328.

 

Brea’s location in the middle of Southern California and proximity to major highways, including the Orange Freeway (57, North/South) and Imperial Highway (90, East/West), fueled peripheral development of surrounding retail and industrial business. But typical of expanding towns, the growth pattern was outward from the city, leaving its downtown area to deteriorate. By the 1970s, Brea’s city core was filled with neglected buildings and vacant lots. That was when the town decided to revitalize its downtown area and concentrate growth efforts on creating a vital
city center.

 “Great streets must
have a visually rich architectural authenticity and a critical mass
of entertainment, dining, and retail options”  Richard Ressler,
CIM Group

 

Since the early 1970s, the City of Brea has invested more than $100 million in making its downtown area an integrated, invigorated and enticing place to live, work, shop and play. Included in the master plan have been strategies to attract and retain businesses, offer quality housing opportunities for all levels of income, and maintain the historic flavor of the town’s past. In addition to incorporating savvy planning and management, the town has also actively solicited community input in its mission to create a vibrant, people-friendly downtown area.

 

As the time to plan its main-street area approached, Brea officials sought the advice of a professional retail developer and chose to work with the CIM Group. Together, town planners and CIM/Brea, Inc. worked hard to innovate a new street

environment that would re-establish the downtown shopping and entertainment district that had been lost in past years of decline, street widening and urban renewal.

 

 

The addition of rental
“loft apartments” over the retail shops of the Birch Street Promenade is a
CIM trademark strategy
that fits perfectly with the Brea Redevelopment Agency’s commitment to affordable housing

 

Designed as a pedestrian street environment, the Birch Street project broke ground last October. The new development by CIM Group will take up 750 feet on two blocks in the heart of downtown Brea and offer 137,000 square feet of prime retail, entertainment, and office/living space. Surrounding the new complex and already open
are other facets of Brea’s ongoing downtown re-do, including Heritage Block, an historic preservation
area, and the new 200,000-square-foot Gateway Shopping Center, which is anchored by Cost
Plus, PetsMart and a supermarket. Additionally, two Edwards Cinemas movie theatres, offering 22
screens and comprising 130,000 square feet, help to bump the Downtown Brea Redevelopment District up to 500,000 square feet of revitalized space.

Behind the cinemas and adjacent to the Birch Street Promenade is a residential area built by the City of Brea as part of its redevelopment program. Called the “Ash Street Cottages,” the in-town neighborhood opened two years ago and features 94 single-family homes clustered in a Victorian-style village. As well, within walking distance is Laurel Walk, another new residential neighborhood of 25 single homes ranging in size from 2,000-3,000 square feet and offering two-car detached garages and private backyards. The new housing areas, along with 36,000 square feet of loft-style apartments planned for the Birch Street Promenade, enrich the redevelopment setting and ensure that the downtown area will be a living community environment.

 

In addition to the loft apartments, the Birch Street Promenade will offer 72,000 square feet of retail space and 29,000 square feet of office facilities. Openings are scheduled to begin in June 1999 and continue through December 1999. CIM/Brea has estimated the cost of development at $18 million, including land, financing and leasing. Construction financing is being provided by Santa Monica Bank.

 

 

“The CIM Group is a great partner, known for picking great streets
and creating great environments”  former Brea Mayor Lynn Daucher

 

RTKL, an international award-winning planning and architectural firm working with the Brea Redevelopment Agency, oversaw master planning and the urban design framework for the whole revitalization project. Designing buildings for the Birch Street project were, from Los Angeles: Kanner Architects, a 1930s international exposition-style edifice; and Clinger Spina Associates, an art-deco-style structure. Koning Eizenberg Architecture, of Santa Monica, California, designed an infill commercial block typical of similar buildings that have had loft conversions. Robinson, Takahashi, Katz and Associates, also of Santa Monica, designed a building made of wood, glass and brick materials that are reflective of Brea history.

 

According to Maurice Kurtz of CIM, leases and letters of intent have been received from: Old Navy, Tower Records/Books/Videos, Boulevard Footwear, Imaginarium, Sarah Bain Gallery, Star Nails, Folk Creations gift shop, LisaBelle Day Spa and Salon, Birch Street Wellness Center, Chico’s Women’s Apparel, Michael Nusskern Originals and Collections, Inc., and Furniture Trading Co. Food tenants will include: Market City Cafe, Zen Zoo Tea, Dairy Queen, Starbucks, Juice Burst, Wetzel’s Pretzels, Maui Beach Cafe, Daphne’s Greek Cafe, and Kahuna 8. At press time, other prospective tenants included Pottery Barn, Gap, Restoration Hardware and Ruby’s Diner.

 

 

 

 

Since the early 1970s, the City of Brea has invested more than $100 million in making its downtown area an integrated, invigorated and enticing place to live, work, shop and play

 

Tenants and shoppers alike will benefit from 1,750 new public parking spaces in two multi-level parking structures that have been built by the City of Brea to serve the downtown area. An additional 350 surface parking spaces are planned at the rear of a second phase of the Birch Street Promenade, planned to offer another 90,000 square feet of retail space with a mix of large retailers, restaurants and smaller tenants. CIM will also develop this later phase, called Superblock 1 and 2. This phase will contain a total of seven buildings designed by Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects associated with F+A Architects. This portion is expected to be completed between summer and fall of the year 2000.

 

All of CIM’s investments of Great Streets share the same strategy,  according to CIM partner Richard Ressler, who comments, “Great streets must have a visually rich authenticity and a critical mass of entertainment, dining, and retail options.  A vibrant mix of eclectic buildings, sidewalk cafes,  gathering places, and shops of all kinds make street destinations a tremendous draw for both local residents and visitors.”

 

This strategy, combined with the prominent successes that exemplify it, prompted Brea officials to choose CIM to develop the Birch Street Promenade. “We chose them because of their experience  in downtown retail,” says Scott  Riordan, a member of the Brea Redevelopment Agency. “The CIM Group is a great partner, known for picking great streets and creating great environments,” adds former Brea Mayor Lynn Daucher, who is also chair of the agency. Of the Birch Street Promenade, she says, “This is the fulfillment of a long-held vision by our community to restore our downtown and become a focal point for shopping and entertainment in northern Orange County.”  In other words, the City of
Brea and CIM Group are a dream team, and the Birch Street Promenade is a happy ending to a downtown area that
used to be a nightmare.

 

Developer

Shaul Kuba, principal

John Given, senior vice president, development

CIM/Brea, Inc. (a California corporation)

310-966-1700

 

Leasing

CIM Group LLC

310-966-1700

 

Architects

Stephen H. Kanner, AIA

Kanner Architects

310-208-0028

 

Sami El Bayar, AIA

Robinson/Takahashi/Katz & Associates

310-837-3606

 

Hank Koning, FAIA

Koning Eizenberg Architecture

310-828-6131

 

Daniel Clinger, AIA

CSA - Clinger Spina Associates

310-824-8711

 

P. Vaughan Davies

Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects

213-385-2737

 

Michael L. Lasley

F + A Architects

818-247-9020

 

City of Brea

Susan Georgino,
Redevelopment Services Director

714-671-4421

Visit the City of Brea’s homepage:
 www.ci.brea.ca.us