By Eric Engelbert | September 2026 | Updated as the project moves forward.
Twenty Years to Break Ground: How a Failed Skyscraper Plan Became Garden Grove's Largest Development
In the early 2000s, a triangular parcel of city-owned land at the corner of Brookhurst Street and Garden Grove Boulevard sat idle, waiting for a plan that would actually work. The city had a vision for it. A development group called Union Pacific Builders had an even bigger one: two skyscrapers, retail, and homes at the intersection of OC Koreatown's two main corridors. That plan never materialized. Union Pacific Builders dropped out, leaving the site and the city's ambitions back at zero.
What eventually emerged from that false start is Brookhurst Place, the largest mixed-use residential development in Garden Grove's history. Phase I, a 180-unit apartment building, opened in 2018. Phase II, now under construction, will eventually add up to 462 more apartment homes, 58 for-sale condominiums, 200,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, a 100-key hotel, a one-mile urban trail, and a one-acre public park on 14 acres in the heart of OC Koreatown. The developer behind all of it is Kam Sang Company, the same Arcadia-based firm that owns the adjacent Sheraton Garden Grove Hotel and is separately building a $277 million Nickelodeon Resort Hotel on Harbor Boulevard.
This is not a quick-flip apartment deal. It is a two-decade bet on a neighborhood that has been waiting for investment at this scale for a long time.
The Brookhurst Triangle: What Was Here Before
The land now being transformed by Brookhurst Place was long known informally as the Brookhurst Triangle, a reference to the roughly triangular shape of the city-owned parcel bounded by Brookhurst Street, Garden Grove Boulevard, and the Garden Grove (22) Freeway to the south. The site had been designated redevelopment land since the early 2000s, when the city began actively trying to attract a signature project to anchor the Korean Business District corridor.
The earliest serious proposal came from Union Pacific Builders, who pitched an ambitious mixed-use development including two high-rise towers. The scale was ambitious but the financing and execution never came together, and Union Pacific exited the project without breaking ground. The site returned to the city, which continued searching for a developer with both the capital and the operational track record to deliver something at that corner.
That partner arrived in 2009, when the city entered into an agreement with Kam Sang Company. Ronnie Lam, Kam Sang's founder, already owned the Sheraton Garden Grove directly adjacent to the site, giving him a firsthand understanding of the neighborhood's hospitality and retail dynamics. The city's Planning Commission formally approved a revised, scaled-back version of the master development plan in early March 2014, under the framework of Garden Grove's Brookhurst/Chapman Specific Plan, a zoning overlay that was designed to enable mixed-use, higher-density development along the Brookhurst and Chapman corridors.
For the Phase I parcel (12801 Brookhurst Street), the land was part of the original city-owned redevelopment site. For the Phase II parcel (10115 Garden Grove Boulevard, approximately 5.5 acres), the city retained ownership until January 2023, when it sold the parcel to Kam Sang for $18 million, or approximately $3.3 million per acre. That sale was reported as the highest per-acre land price the city had recorded in several years and provided the financial signal that Phase II was moving from plan to reality.
Phase I: The Foundation That Made Phase II Possible
Brookhurst Place Phase I construction began in 2016. The five-story, 180-unit apartment building at 12801 Brookhurst Street opened in July 2018 as the anchor of what Kam Sang and the city envisioned as a live-work-play district for OC Koreatown. The building features a pool and spa, a clubhouse, and fitness facilities.
Phase I's performance validated the investment thesis for the larger buildout. By early 2023, the building had reached 98.9% occupancy, essentially full, according to CoStar Group. Rents were running from approximately $2,372 per month for a one-bedroom unit averaging 836 square feet to $3,625 per month for a three-bedroom unit averaging 1,569 square feet. At a time when Garden Grove's overall average one-bedroom rent was approximately $2,100 per month, Phase I was achieving a premium, suggesting strong demand for newer, amenity-rich housing in the area.
That occupancy rate gave Kam Sang and its lenders confidence in moving forward with Phase II, and gave the city a demonstrated market success to point to when justifying the $18 million land sale.
Who Is Kam Sang Company?
Kam Sang Company, Inc. is an Arcadia-based real estate and hospitality development firm founded in 1979 by Ronnie Lam. The company's portfolio spans luxury hotels, mixed-use commercial properties, and now large-scale residential development. Its hotel projects have included the Waldorf Astoria in Las Vegas, the Ritz-Carlton in Rancho Mirage, and the Embassy Suites in Glendale. In Garden Grove specifically, Kam Sang owns and operates the Sheraton Garden Grove Hotel, which sits directly adjacent to the Brookhurst Place site.
That adjacency matters. Kam Sang did not come to the Brookhurst Triangle as an outsider. The company already had a major asset and operational presence at the corner of Brookhurst and Garden Grove Boulevard before any apartment was planned. Ronnie Lam was familiar with the neighborhood's foot traffic, the Korean business community anchored along the corridor, and the gap between what the area could support and what existed on the ground. Brookhurst Place is in some ways an extension of that existing investment rather than a new bet on an unknown market.
The garden Grove relationship has deepened significantly over time. In addition to Brookhurst Place, Kam Sang is the developer behind the long-planned Nickelodeon Hotel and Resort, a 23-story, 500-room themed resort on Harbor Boulevard approved by the Garden Grove City Council in June 2026 after clearing a court-ordered supplemental environmental review. That project represents another major capital commitment to a city where Kam Sang has operated for decades.
Julia Peng serves as Project Manager for Brookhurst Place on behalf of Kam Sang. Ronnie Lam's son is involved in operations through the affiliated Atlantic Times Square development company. The family and the firm are deeply embedded in this project's long-term success.
Phase II: Scope, Sequence, and What Is Being Built Now
Phase II groundbreaking took place on June 6, 2023, with Garden Grove city officials and Kam Sang representatives marking the official start of construction for the development's final and largest phase. The total estimated cost of Phase II has been reported at approximately $42 million for the first building, with the full buildout expected to be substantially larger given the commercial and hotel components.
The Phase II master plan calls for construction across three additional buildings (numbered Building 2, Building 3, and Building 4 in the project sequence). Building 2 is the first to break ground and is currently under construction as of the city's Q1 2026 Development Projects Update List.
| Phase II Location | 10115 Garden Grove Blvd and 12854 Brookhurst Way, Garden Grove, CA 92840 |
|---|---|
| Phase II Site Area | Approximately 5.5 acres (purchased from city, January 2023) |
| Land Purchase Price | $18 million ($3.3M per acre) |
| Phase II Groundbreaking | June 6, 2023 |
| Building 2 (under construction) | 94 apartments, 6-story, 3-level parking garage (Case No. PUD-123-09) |
| Phase II Total Apartments | Up to 462 (Buildings 2, 3, and 4) |
| Affordable Units (Phase II) | 60 apartments at affordable income levels |
| For-Sale Condominiums | 58 units planned |
| Commercial and Retail | Up to 200,000 square feet |
| Hotel | 100-key hotel planned |
| Public Amenities | 1-mile urban trail, 1-acre public park |
| Developer | Kam Sang Company, Inc. (Arcadia) |
| Zoning Framework | Brookhurst/Chapman Specific Plan (PUD-123-09) |
The full vision, combining Phase I and Phase II, is a 14-acre mixed-use community with up to 700 total residential units, a hotel, a park, a trail, and major commercial density. When complete, it will be the single largest residential and commercial development in Garden Grove's history by most measures.
How Did Garden Grove Approve High-Density at This Scale?
The density at Brookhurst Place did not happen by accident or by exception. It was deliberate city planning policy embedded in a specific plan that predates Kam Sang's involvement. Garden Grove adopted the Brookhurst/Chapman Specific Plan (BCSP), a specialized zoning overlay that covers the Brookhurst Street and Chapman Avenue commercial corridors in the Korean Business District. Specific plans in California allow cities to tailor land use standards well beyond what a standard zoning code permits, and the BCSP was designed precisely to enable the kind of mixed-use, higher-density development the city wanted at this intersection.
The project is also entitled under Planned Unit Development No. PUD-123-09, an approval that has been in place since 2009 and was modified and refined as the project evolved through planning. A PUD allows a developer to treat a multi-parcel, multi-building project as a unified development rather than parcel by parcel, which gives more design flexibility and allows density bonuses to be applied across the whole site.
The Planning Commission approved the revised Brookhurst Triangle plan in March 2014 under this framework. That approval established the development envelope: how many units, how much commercial, how tall the buildings could go, how parking would be handled, and what public amenities would be required. The $18 million city land sale in 2023 also came with the city's explicit endorsement of the Phase II buildout under the same framework. No rezoning was required for Phase II because the entitlement structure had already contemplated the full scope of the project.
California's State Density Bonus Law provides an additional layer of encouragement. By including affordable units in the project, Kam Sang qualifies for reduced parking requirements and other concessions that make a project of this density more financially feasible to build.
Affordable Housing: 60 Units and What That Means
Phase II of Brookhurst Place will include 60 affordable apartment homes out of the approximately 462 total units, or roughly 13 percent of the residential count. These units are designated for income-qualified households, though the specific income tiers (very-low, low, or moderate income) for each unit have not been broken down in public-facing project documents.
Like all affordable housing in Orange County, income limits at Brookhurst Place are calculated using the Orange County Area Median Income (AMI) published annually by HUD, not the household income of Garden Grove itself. For 2025, Orange County's AMI for a family of four is $169,200.
| Very Low Income (50% AMI) | Up to $84,600/year for a 4-person household |
|---|---|
| Low Income (80% AMI) | Up to $135,360/year for a 4-person household |
| Typical max rent at 50% AMI | Approximately $1,903/mo for a 2-bedroom unit |
| Typical max rent at 60% AMI | Approximately $2,284/mo for a 2-bedroom unit |
For context, Phase I market rents at Brookhurst Place start at around $2,372 per month for a one-bedroom unit. The affordable units in Phase II will provide rent levels meaningfully below that, offering access to a well-located, amenity-rich community to households who would otherwise not qualify at market rates. For Garden Grove, where median household income is substantially lower than the broader OC average, this matters.
Sixty affordable units within a single development is a meaningful contribution for a city of Garden Grove's size, though it represents a small fraction of the city's overall affordable housing need. The Brookhurst/Chapman Specific Plan requires affordable unit set-asides as part of its conditions, so these 60 units are a product of both the development agreement and California density bonus law, not purely voluntary inclusion.
Garden Grove's Housing Crisis by the Numbers: 19,168 Units, a Tiny Pipeline
Garden Grove's 6th Cycle RHNA (Regional Housing Needs Allocation) obligation for the 2021-2029 planning period is 19,168 units. That figure, assigned by the Southern California Association of Governments and ultimately derived from state housing policy, is among the largest obligations in Orange County for a city of Garden Grove's size and density. The city has approximately 175,000 residents and is already largely built out, meaning almost every new unit requires demolition, lot consolidation, or upzoning of existing commercial land.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development certified Garden Grove's Housing Element in December 2023, which means the city has an approved plan for where those units could theoretically go. Certification does not mean the units are being built. It means the city has identified enough appropriately zoned land, in theory, to accommodate the allocation.
Looking at the city's entire active development pipeline in Q1 2026, the residential projects currently in entitlement, plan check, or under construction add up to somewhere between 500 and 700 units across all projects, including Brookhurst Place Phase II. Against a 19,168-unit obligation spread over eight years, that pace leaves Garden Grove dramatically behind where the state wants it to be.
Brookhurst Place Phase II, at up to 462 apartments and 58 condominiums, is by far the single largest residential project in the city's current pipeline. It will account for more than half of the units being added to Garden Grove's housing stock in this planning cycle, assuming the rest of the pipeline delivers. That concentration of output in a single development underscores both how important the project is to the city's housing goals and how limited Garden Grove's broader development activity remains relative to its state-mandated targets.
OC Koreatown: The Neighborhood Brookhurst Place Is Anchoring
The Garden Grove City Council officially designated the Korean Business District along Brookhurst Street as Orange County Koreatown in 2019, recognizing the area's long-standing role as the primary hub of Korean American commerce and community in Southern California outside of Los Angeles. The designation covers roughly the stretch of Brookhurst Street between Garden Grove Boulevard and the Garden Grove (22) Freeway, the same corridor where Brookhurst Place is being built.
Garden Grove has the largest Korean American population in Orange County, estimated at more than 35,000 residents, and Korean-owned businesses line Brookhurst Street with restaurants, grocery stores, beauty supply shops, professional services, and cultural institutions. The Korean American community has had a presence in this area since the 1970s and 1980s, when Korean immigrants first established businesses along Brookhurst that catered to both the local population and the broader diaspora across Southern California.
Brookhurst Place was conceived as a project that would bring residential density to this corridor for the first time at scale. The city's argument for the Brookhurst/Chapman Specific Plan was that the commercial district needed rooftops to survive and grow, and that mixed-use residential development at the intersection of Brookhurst and Garden Grove Boulevard would generate foot traffic for merchants, provide housing for workers and residents who already had community ties here, and signal to the broader market that Garden Grove's Koreatown was a place worth investing in.
Phase I's near-100% occupancy rate since 2018 suggests the market agreed. Phase II, with its planned retail and commercial component of up to 200,000 square feet, has the potential to create a true mixed-use district with a density of activity that the neighborhood has not previously seen.
What Is Under Construction Now and What Comes Next
As of the City of Garden Grove's Q1 2026 Development Projects Update, Phase II Building 2 (Case No. PUD-123-09, addressed at 12854 Brookhurst Way) is listed as under construction. Building 2 will be a six-story structure with 94 apartment units and a three-level integrated parking garage. It is the first of the three Phase II residential buildings to break ground following the June 2023 ceremony.
The buildout of Buildings 3 and 4, along with the commercial, hotel, and condominium components, will depend on construction financing, market conditions at the time of each subsequent phase, and the pace of lease-up in Building 2. Mixed-use projects of this scale are typically built in sequences tied to absorption and capital availability rather than on a fixed master timeline. Given that Phase I took from 2016 groundbreaking to 2018 delivery, and Phase II Building 2 broke ground in June 2023, a reasonable estimate for Building 2 completion would be sometime in 2025 or 2026. The remaining components of Phase II are likely to carry into the late 2020s.
What to Expect for Rents in Phase II
No rent pricing has been announced for Phase II units. Phase I provides the most direct comparable. One-bedroom units in Phase I were renting for approximately $2,372 per month for an average of 836 square feet as of early 2023, and three-bedroom units were reaching $3,625 per month for an average of 1,569 square feet. Phase II units, as a newer building in the same development with more extensive amenity programming planned, would typically be expected to command rents at or above the Phase I range at the time of delivery.
Garden Grove's broader rental market has been moving upward. The city's overall average one-bedroom rent was approximately $2,100 per month in early 2023, representing a roughly 20% year-over-year increase at the time. New market-rate supply tends to absorb at the higher end of local ranges, particularly in a city where competitive newer inventory is limited.
For the 60 affordable units, rent levels will be capped by the applicable AMI tier, likely ranging from approximately $1,900 to $2,300 per month for two-bedroom units depending on whether units are designated at the 50% or 60% AMI threshold. Applications for affordable units are typically managed through the developer's leasing office and may have local preference or income verification requirements.
For anyone interested in being notified when Phase II leasing opens, registering interest directly with Kam Sang Company is the most reliable path. Their project contact is Julia Peng at jpeng@kamsangco.com.
Watching Garden Grove's Housing Market?
Brookhurst Place is the most consequential housing project underway in Garden Grove, but it is not the only one. The city has a pipeline of smaller projects working through approvals and plan check, and the pressure from the state's 19,168-unit RHNA obligation is pushing more development activity into corridors that have not seen multifamily construction in years. For buyers, sellers, and investors tracking Garden Grove, the pace and character of that development pipeline directly affects pricing, inventory, and neighborhood dynamics.
If you have questions about Garden Grove's housing market or are considering buying or selling in the area, reach out anytime.
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