Skip to content

Bella Terra, the energy-filled retail center on Beach Boulevard and Edinger Avenue just off the San Diego Freeway (405) in Huntington Beach was long billed as a live/work/walk center and now the live part is coming true. Two new apartment communities are underway and a third is waiting in the wings. Together, the three complexes could place 1,338 apartment units right at the retail center’s doorstep. Apartments will be linked to the retail center with pedestrian paths.

The Residences at Bella Terra, an elegantly-designed apartment community is being developed by UDR, Denver, and is currently leasing. Units, from studios to three bedrooms, are being offered from $1,600 to $3,315 per month. Included is a two-acre park, a fitness center and a salt water swimming pool.  

Of The Residences’ 467 units, 70 will be affordable, hopefully adding the “work” component to Bella Terra’s live/work/walk concept, with retail center employees actually living within walking distance of their jobs.

Move-in is planned for May 2014 for Boardwalk, a 487-unit apartment complex being developed by Saris-Regis Group, Irvine. With 57 affordable units, Boardwalk is rising on the 12-acre site of the former Levitz department store, left over from the Huntington Center, which closed in 2003 and became the site of Bella Terra. Boardwalk will have a half-acre park and studio, one and two-bedroom apartments are expected to rent from $1,425 to $2,475 per month.

The third apartment community, HB Lofts, was to be 385 units on an 8.5-acre site but was stalled by resident opposition. Originally to be developed by Archstone of Englewood, Colorado, Archstone sold most of its Orange County apartment inventory to the Irvine Company, so the future of HB Lofts is not yet clear.

***

Doheny Village, in the southwest corner of Dana Point, feels like it has been forgotten. Adjacent to Capistrano Beach and with the San Diego Freeway (I-5) on the east, the San Juan Creek on the west and the beach on the south, the area has a sprinkling of light industrial, a few shops, a mobile home park, and several churches.

Business interests in the area believe that the City of Dana Point is placing all of its redevelopment interest on the Town Center. Once the downtown for Capistrano Beach, the area has deteriorated and landowners want the city to create a master plan to court new businesses to the area.