Olson Begins $90M Founders Walk

BUENA PARK, CA-The Seal Beach-based Olson Co. has broken ground on its 192-unit Founders Walk transit-oriented village, which will include 192 multifamily housing units adjacent to the city's soon-to-be-built Metrolink train station. The 192 units will comprise two neighborhoods of buildings clustered in configurations of four, five and six attached townhomes.Olson expects to complete the units in April, along with amenities that will include an overhead, secured pedestrian connector to the train station, a community center with a 3,200-sf clubhouse, a swimming pool, a spa, a sun deck, tot lots, picnic tables and barbecues.Although Metrolink has been providing mass transit throughout Southern California for more than 10 years, the notion of taking the train to work "is still novel to most commuters" in the region, notes Marlon Fenton, managing director for the Olson Co. But Fenton says that Southern Californians can expect to see more transit-oriented projects like Founders Walk in the coming years because of the ever-increasing freeway congestion in the Southland.Buena Park residents face long freeway commutes to business centers in downtown L.A. and South Orange County, according to Art Brown, the city's mayor pro tem. He says Buena Park officials have been encouraging projects like Founders Walk to fit with the city's goals of providing transit-oriented housing.The Founders Walk development is one of three transit-oriented Olson Co. projects in various stages of development in Orange County. The others include SoCo Walk, a transit-oriented village featuring 120 lofts and town houses next to the historic Santa Fe Railway Depot in Fullerton and a project in Orange called Old Towne Orange.