Bolsa Row – Experiential Urban Lifestyle Development Planned for Westminster’s Little Saigon

RENTV.com

August 31, 2017

A new residential/mixed-use development is planned for the Orange County city of Westminster that is expected to serve as the gateway to “Little Saigon,” the largest Vietnamese community in the U.S. Called Bolsa Row, the project is being designed by KTGY Architecture + Planning, who describe it as an experiential urban lifestyle development.

Bolsa Row is being developed by IP Westminster LLC, led by Joann and Bac Pham, a developer with hotels in Garden Grove and other nearby cities. Plans for the project, to be located on six acres on the southeast corner of Bolsa Ave and Brookhurst St, have been submitted to the city and are currently under review.

The planned development includes a five-story, 150-room hotel, which is the area’s first, and a five-story, 201-unit apartment community with a mix of studios and one- and two-bedroom apartment homes. The design currently includes approximately 60k sf of ground-floor experiential and lifestyle retail, restaurant space and an event facility. The plan is connected and energized by a “Festival Street,” a pedestrian-friendly retail promenade that could host Southeast Asian summer market nights and similar events.

KTGY provided the planning for the project and will serve as the executive architect for the entire project. The firm will also serve as the design architect for the residential component.

“Designing a great urban place demands attention to not only how it functions (access, parking, the number of units, etc.) but also how it connects to the human experience,” said Ken Ryan, KTGY principal and head of the firm’s Community Planning and Urban Design Studio. “Bolsa Row will offer a mix of uses that provide a sense of destination and synergy reflective of the area’s cultural heritage that will attract people to come, and cause them to return.”

The retail along the base of the hotel’s event hall and apartment community engages and enlivens the Festival Street, which can be closed to traffic without restricting the circulation of the site. The Festival Street provides parking for retail when open and a safe place for community gatherings, farmers markets, holiday celebrations or private parties when closed, Ryan stated.

A landscaped “Celebration Bridge” with seating areas connects the event hall to the hotel’s second-story roof garden. The bridge enhances the pedestrian circulation, establishes active and passive uses, and provides an outdoor event space with access to the indoor reception halls.