After more than two decades of delays, the long-planned One Broadway Plaza has re-emerged with a revised plan that shifts the 37-story high-rise away from office space and toward 602 upper-end, market-rate apartments.

Developer Mike Harrah, president of Santa Ana-based Caribou Industries, told the Business Journal that the overhaul reflects a post-pandemic market reality that upended the original project’s plan as an office tower. The latest proposal adds 187 more units, an eight-level parking structure and a grocery store, and reduces office space compared with earlier versions.

“The uses have changed because the economy has changed,” said Harrah. “Mainly because of COVID, where everybody started working from home and commercial buildings took a big hit.”

If built, One Broadway Plaza at 1109 North Broadway in Santa Ana—across the street from Orange County School of the Arts and less than a mile from Santa Ana’s Civic Center—would become the tallest building in Orange County.

With several government office buildings and public transit nearby, the plan is to convert the Civic Center area from a daytime employment hub into a true live-work district, Harrah said.

“There really isn’t anything like this here,” he said.

Highest and Best Use

This is the third time Harrah is revising One Broadway Plaza.

The city originally approved the skyscraper as an office tower back in 2004.

In January 2020, Harrah reduced the office space and added 415 residential units, which the city approved later that year.

Now, the most recent proposal calls for a 37-story tower with 602 market-rate residential units, along with some office and retail uses, a detached eight-level parking structure and a grocery store, according to city planning records.

The building would total roughly 800,000 square feet, with about 70,000 square feet dedicated to retail.

Residential units would be a minimum of 500 square feet, according to city records.
“Residential is the highest and best use,” he said.

Instead of including affordable units onsite, Harrah plans to pay an in-lieu fee of about $4.7 million to the city. The money would go to the city’s general fund.

“I felt it was a better use of the money,” Harrah said. “That money is used to build parks and things in the city, rather than putting 19 affordable units out of 600.”

The project is expected to cost around $400 million. Harrah said financing has not yet been arranged.

The Need for Housing

Harrah said the city—and Orange County—is in dire need of housing.

Apartment vacancy in Orange County has remained below 2%, he said, particularly in Santa Ana.

According to apartment data company, RentCafe, the average rent for an apartment in the city is $2,732, up 1.76% year over year. Studios start at $1,900, while three-bedroom units can reach $3,650.

Meanwhile, the city’s office market still hasn’t rebounded from the pandemic, with direct vacancy at 21.5% ending in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to Kidder Mathews. In 2019, office vacancy in Santa Ana was at 10%.

“By the grace of God, I’m glad we didn’t build it as a commercial building,” he said.

“Because it would be empty with all the rest.”

Harrah described One Broadway Plaza as an upper-end, market-rate high-rise, offering rents comparable to newer developments but with more amenities.

He said the proposed amenities include a ground-floor grocery store, restaurants, health spas and a swimming lagoon.

“It would cost the same in rent, but you’re getting a lot more,” he said.

The developer is banking on attracting thousands of county, city and court employees who work nearby to rent at One Broadway.

Many of them currently commute from other cities, Harrah said.

“They’re driving home to Irvine or Huntington Beach or Riverside,” he said. “The idea is to give people the option to live where they work.”

Harrah also pointed to transit access, including the OC Streetcar, a 4-mile electric streetcar that connects Santa Ana to Garden Grove. The route, expected to open this spring, will run from Santa Ana’s train station to a new transit stop at Harbor Boulevard in Garden Grove, with several stops in downtown Santa Ana, including the Civic Center.

“That’s the future—public transportation, lowering traffic congestion and reducing greenhouse gas impacts,” he said.

One Broadway’s Long History

For Harrah, the project has been a long time coming.

The city initially approved the controversial skyscraper in the early 2000s despite residents’ protests.

The mixed-use development has faced a series of lawsuits and setbacks from historical preservationists.

Now, he’ll go through the gauntlet again to seek approval to increase the number of residential units from 415 to 602.

“Absolutely not in favor of this monstrosity of a building,” Tracy Simons, the president of the Washington Square Neighborhood Association, told the Business Journal in an email.

Harrah held his first Sunshine Ordinance Community Meeting last month, where roughly 25 people attended, out of several thousand notified, he said.

Looking ahead, Harrah said financing discussions are ongoing as interest rates ease. Construction is tentatively targeted to begin in the first quarter of 2027.

“I’ve been here 33 years,” he said. “This is a big deal for me—to help raise the bar downtown, bring in tax dollars and put a lot of people to work.”