Orange County supervisors approve $227 million for next phase of Civic Center overhaul

Orange County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to raise $227 million in bond revenue to finance the second phase of its planned overhaul of the Civic Center complex in downtown Santa Ana.

Repaying the bonds will cost taxpayers $13.8 million a year for 30 years, or about $393 million. Last year, the board voted to spend $178 million on the first phase of the project, which will cost $315 million to repay. Combined, the two bonds figure to be the biggest debt taken on by the county since its 1994 bankruptcy.

Supervisors say the say the project will save money in the long run by reducing repair costs, improving energy efficiency and reducing the county’s reliance on leasing office space.

County officials estimated on Tuesday that the cost of sticking with the Civic Center’s current 40- to 50-year-old buildings could amount to more than $300 million over the next three decades, meaning the true cost of the overhaul is substantially less than on paper. That estimate covers only the first two of four planned project phases. County leaders haven’t offered an estimate for how much the full project will cost.

“Over the years, these buildings will continue to get older and eventually we will have to rebuild them anyway,” Board Chairman Andrew Do said.

“We are remaking the face of county government.”

The project, unveiled in 2016, calls for huddling affiliated government services in a so-called “superblock.” The bonds approved Tuesday will pay to demolish three buildings and construct a new 254,000-square foot facility to replace the Hall of Administration.

The new building, located on Ross Street north of Santa Ana Boulevard, will include a room for the Board of Supervisors to hold its bi-monthly public meetings. It also will house offices for individual supervisors, the county chief executive, county counsel, human resources, the Health Care Agency, and Community Resources.

Construction is expected to begin in spring 2020 and be completed in August 2022. Los Angeles-based Griffin Structures is the project’s developer. The entire four-phase Civic Center project is planned to be completed by 2035.

It’s unclear when the board will move forward on financing the final two phases of the project, but construction on phase three is set to start in 2024 and phase four will start in 2030.

Phase one of the project started last year, when the county began construction on offices for several agencies and a “one-stop public counter” that is supposed to provide a single location to conduct almost all county business. That building is set to open in mid-2020.

The departments that occupy the new buildings will pay rent to the county, which will be used to repay the bond debt. County officials did not immediately respond to questions about how the various agencies would absorb the new costs, or how those costs might affect services.