Birtcher Is Recommended as Planner for Bowers District

SANTA ANA — The Laguna Niguel development firm of Birtcher has been recommended by the Bowers Museum District Committee to be the master planner of the district, a mixed-use project that will include both commercial and cultural components.

The committee, however, has no official powers, and its choice will be presented Feb. 6 to the Santa Ana Redevelopment Commission for approval. The commission will send its recommendations to the city’s Redevelopment Agency--whose members do double duty as the City Council--for a final decision on Feb. 20.

The museum district is a triangle of land bounded on the west by Broadway, on the south by 17th Street and on the northeast by the Santa Ana Freeway. The types of cultural components to be included in the development have not yet been established, and the ratio of specifically “cultural” space to commercial space has not yet been determined.

The Blue Ribbon Planning Committee Report issued by the Bowers Museum in 1986 says the mission of the district “will be to promote an exciting environment of learning, exploration and appreciation of the many facets of culture, art, history, science and the natural world.”

Cultural components mentioned as possibilities for the district have included museums dealing with art, history and/or science, storefront satellite museums, a theater and a sculpture garden.

Birtcher’s most recent mixed-use projects include the Xerox Center in Santa Ana and the recently proposed Orient Square complex near the MainPlace mall. It was one of four firms responding to a request for qualifications (RFQ) distributed nationwide by the city last fall to developers, architects, land-use planners and investment companies.

One of the three other firms that responded to the RFQ dropped out of the running because of scheduling conflicts. The other two firms were the Ratkovich Co. of Los Angeles and PacTel Properties of Irvine.

The selection committee, which serves only in an advisory capacity, is composed of staff from the community development, planning and building and public works agencies, Bowers Museum board members and Los Angeles-based economic consultant Keyser Marston Associates.

According to Josie La Quay, redevelopment project manager, construction of the first phase of the district won’t start for two or three years after the master plan has been prepared by the developer. In return for preparing this plan, Birtcher, if selected, would be given its choice of a site to develop within the district.

La Quay said she has been asked why the city didn’t retain control of the project and farm out the master plan for the district to a consultant: “The answer is real obvious. We lack a developer’s perspective. (We can’t say) what’s going to attract developers to come here. . . . Once the master plan is established, the city will be looking for other developers to create residential, cultural, office and retail components of the district.

“We feel Birtcher will make a long-term commitment to the museum district’s success,” La Quay explained. “They have the ability to promote and attract the corporate image we want for this area. They possess the market knowledge of the area.”