Burnham Plans Project on Five-Acre Site

ORANGE COUNTY-Burnham USA Equities Inc. of Newport Beach plans to redevelop a five-acre site, now home to a Brunswick bowling alley that the company recently acquired from the Brunswick Corp. The property is on Tustin Ave. across from the main entrance of the recently renovated The Village at Orange. Stephen Thorp, a VP with Burnham USA, tells GlobeSt.com that the company has not yet formulated its plans for the redevelopment and so it has initially leased back the property to Brunswick for an unspecified period while Burnham determines the best use for the site.Thorp calls the site "a phenomenal location with freeway visibility that's second to none." Burnham USA is evaluating redevelopment possibilities that could include the building of apartments or condominiums, he says. "This is unique in that we are typically a retail developer," Thorp tells GlobeSt.com.The Brunswick parcel represents the fourth property that Burnham has purchased in the city of Orange, where the company has owned and developed a variety of property types over the past 20 years. Burnham, which owns Orange Town and Country shopping center adjacent to Main Place Mall and Orange Villa Shopping Center just south of The Village at Orange, completed its development earlier this year of City Town Center, the Best Buy anchored shopping center adjacent to the Block at Orange. All three existing projects are 100% leased.The Brunswick site will join a list of Burnham redevelopment projects that includes the 58,000-sf Campus Plaza retail center in Mission Viejo, which the company bought last year for $14 million in anticipation of the redevelopment. The Campus Plaza center, at 28311 through 28391 Marguerite Parkway, was built in 1980 but had not been renovated between the time it was built and last year when Burnham bought it. During the past 20 years, Burnham USA and its affiliates have developed or acquired several million square feet within the Southland. Today, the company's portfolio consists primarily of shopping centers and professional office buildings.