Developer of The Source in Buena Park gets OK for mixed use apartment project

A mixed use building with 34 apartments will soon rise in Buena Park down the street from The Source, a sort of prelude to a much larger complex that may someday abut the mall.

The Source developer M + D Properties recently got city approval for the smaller residential and commercial development at the corner of Beach Boulevard and 9th Street just south of I-5, where it will wrap a 95-foot-tall digital billboard recently went up. The billboard to aimed at those cruising the freeway.

But Buena Park officials, frustrated with a lack of progress down the street at the main center, said no one will be allowed to move into the mixed use project until promised sidewalks, signs and landscaping are finished at The Source.

And some council members said they may want to see better performance from M + D Properties before they’ll sign off on plans for a major development north of the mall’s parking garage that would include 250 condominiums and nearly 12,000 square feet of commercial uses.

The Source spokeswoman Katie Wanamaker said Monday complications with utility lines and getting Orange County Fire Authority approval for a hotel at The Source delayed the project, so Brenner Avenue – which runs behind the mall – has been closed longer than expected.

Temporary traffic barriers were recently removed from Brenner and the road should be completely reopened by fall, Buena Park Community Development Director Joel Rosen said.

It can’t happen soon enough for Councilman Fred Smith, who said the closure that was supposed to be less than a year has stretched on for four years, and he hears residents’ complaints about it “almost every day.”

Rosen said the developer also will plant trees, install traffic signals and build sidewalks near The Source and put up a digital sign at Beach and Orangethorpe Avenue as promised.

The mall has struggled to fill its storefronts – though several have opened the last few months – and the developer has been scrambling to refinance the project. Wanamaker has said a financing deal should be finalized soon.

The council has approved the concept of the 250-condo development, but Smith said he’ll need to be convinced the developer has adequate financing and will follow through before he’ll sign off on detailed plans.

Since the developer first proposed the project more than a decade ago, The Source has been through many design changes and delays, Smith said. “Twelve years is a lot of time and a lot of wasted money.”