ANAHEIM, Calif. — While the Los Angeles Angels team, stadium and development are in limbo, the Anaheim Ducks’ ocV!BE mixed-use project around the Honda Center is in its final stages of approval.
On Monday, the majority of the Anaheim Planning Commission voted 5-0 to approve the owner of the Anaheim Ducks, the Samueli family’s, proposed $4 billion mixed-use project and entertainment district on a 115-acre lot surrounding the Honda Center and the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center, or ARTIC for short. Two planning commissioners were out.
“This is a project that’s the biggest that’s come around since I’ve been involved in Anaheim — and that’s a long time — and the fact that they are doing it with their own dime is a tribute to what they think Anaheim will offer,” said Lucille Kring, an Anaheim planning commissioner, and former long-time city council member. “They’ve invested in the Ducks, and now they are investing in ocV!BE and the Platinum Triangle. They are investing constantly in Anaheim, and that’s a wonderful thing.”
The project will now go to the Anaheim City Council for final approval. The council plans to vote on the project in September.
The proposed multi-billion dollar project comes four years after the city and Henry and Susan Samueli’s Anaheim Arena Management agreed to extend the management operations of the city-owned Honda Center and take over ARTIC until at least 2048.
The Samuelis had operated the Honda Center when it was then known as the Arrowhead Pond since 2003, before buying the Ducks in 2005.
In 2020, with control of most of the area, the Samuelis announced the ocV!BE project in the city’s growing Platinum Triangle area.
A former industrial area, the 820-acre Platinum Triangle is anchored by the Honda Center and Angel Stadium. It’s the city’s vision of a downtown stadium district with shops, dining, offices and homes.
The Angels owner had proposed building around Angel Stadium until the stadium land deal fell apart due to controversy.
The ocV!BE master-planned development includes the building of new office buildings, a new 5,700-seat concert venue, more than 35 restaurants, retail, two hotels, 20 acres of park space, housing and parking structures.
The plan calls for 1,500 apartments, with 195 reserved for low-and-moderate income households. More affordable housing could be within a quarter mile of the development.
The project also calls for a $390 million update of the Honda Center arena and $60 million to the ARTIC transportation center.
The Samuelis said they are funding the entire project with no city subsidies or rebates.
“OcV!BE represents the dream of the Samueli family,” said Brian Myers, a spokesperson for the Samuelis, to the commission on Monday. “The dream is not just an incredibly designed and engineered transit-oriented master plan community where the residents of Anaheim and surrounding regions can live, work and play. Yes, it’s that, but not just that. The dream of the Samuelis is to create a thriving community that is inclusive to everyone, sustainable at every level, and a community where the sense of purpose transcends its sense of place.”