Lost on the shuffle of the pre-Christmas rush is this welcome news about the expansion of the campus of the Orange County High School for the Arts. The school recently closed escrow on a second major property in Downtown Santa Ana after having purchasing the OC Pavilion on Main Street. The new building, at 902 North Main Street, will serve as a gallery.
From the announcement: “A complex, $30 million financing deal enabling the expansion of Orange County High School of the Arts (OCHSA) closed escrow December 13. Key players in the financing were Farmers & Merchants Bank (F&M), Clearinghouse CDFI and several private supporters of OCHSA, all through US Treasury Department’s New Markets Tax Credit Program. Â
The complicated transaction has three key elements: purchase of the former OC Pavilion building on Main Street in Santa Ana, which will become the OCHSA Center for the Arts with the new Margaret A. Webb Theater serving as the school’s premier performance venue; purchase of a building south of the existing campus to serve as the new visual arts facility; and refinancing and renovation of three existing OCHSA buildings.”
With the strong Artist’s Village coupled with the expansion of the high school, Santa Ana is poised to become the center of the arts for Orange County over Laguna Beach and Costa Mesa.
The high school of the arts, is getting a lot of non Latino’s into down town Santa Ana and increasing the diversity. Now if the city would reduce the speed limit reflecting the area as a full time school zone.
I had no idea there was a high school for the arts in OC. Very cool!
Good for OCHSA.
Good for Santa Ana.
And good for Mike Harrah – he gets to dump his failed OC Pavilion at a huge loss.
Will Harrah’s One Broadway Plaza also fail?