Check Out The Holistically Designed, Forward-Thinking Shopping Center

Last month, the first Whole Foods in North Orange County soft-opened at Regency Centers’ Village La Floresta, an 87k SF shopping center along the Imperial Highway. The ground-up development not only features its landmark anchor, but restaurant, office and retail space as well. But what makes the Village most exciting is the holistic thought process behind its shops and layout. To get details on how the Village came together, we sat down with investment VP John Mehigan.

Coming Together, In More Ways Than One

When John and his team started the design process, they knew the site's potential. Believing they could go farther with the design than normal, the team put everyone—architects, construction, leasing, property management, brokers—on the project at once to figure out what the Village was going to be. With this communication and coordination, the team was able to come up with a clear vision for the project: a high-end neighborhood center with unique approaches to tenants, architecture, site work, place-making and so on.

“We wanted to create a space that people would drive past three other grocery stories and sandwich places to get to ours, just because of how different and great it felt once you got there. Everything, from the landscaping to even the art piece, had to be totally different than anything else,” John says.

The art piece is home plate for the baseball field-sized plot, with three restaurant patios on the “bases.” From there, the team continued to construct outward.

The Weight of a Whole Foods

While John admits people at the opening were ecstatic about finally having a Whole Foods in their market, he says the Regency Centers team wasn’t banking on the Whole Foods Effect, a real estate trend where a new Whole Foods will lead to an increase in property values as rich, well-educated tenants flock to surrounding areas. John believes the Brea market was already full of both affluent, educated customers and residential properties (including the 1,100-unit master community the Village will eventually be part of), so the market would produce a population bump, as opposed to boom.

He says the appeal of the Whole Foods was heavily considered when filling up the center, pointing out high-quality retailers and restaurants want to position themselves next to a Whole Foods and tap into that customer base. John says it was simple as telling a potential tenant the Village was going to provide an entire parking lot filled with customers.

Designing For Anyone, By Designing For Everyone

With Orange County and SoCal being a melting pot, these customers include Millennials, Baby Boomers, Hispanics, Asians and more. When designing the Village, John and his team heavily considered how to appeal to the new and increasing tenants in the Brea market. They even created reports about how the population was going to change over time to future-proof the property.

John says the Village strikes a fine balance by having diverse, quality retail, restaurants and amenities that could appeal to any group. The Slapfish restaurant, he says, could be accommodating for his 4-year-old twins, his parents, or even just he and his wife. While the center doesn’t feature a movie theater or an entertainment center, the restaurants will be open late enough to present an enjoyable evening experience.

 “The restaurants are doing more than just one thing well and have diverse menus for any palette,” he says. “We took a lot of time on picking the right combination of tenants and restaurants.”

Going Forward

As the master community nears completion, John (pictured) says the Village will become the downtown for Brea’s Eastside and Northeast Orange County, especially considering how active and connected the community’s tenants already are on social media. The Whole Foods, now officially open, has already planned events to connect with other area tenants to bring them to the Village.

“The connections between the tenants that we’ve chosen will continue to radiate throughout the community,” John says. “And we’re working to create a space specifically dedicated for those kinds of connecting events and even city events. The Village is really going to be the center of it all.”

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