The Site: A Former AT&T Building Demolished for 48 New Homes

The property at 901 E. Katella Ave. previously held a 20,000-square-foot industrial building that served as AT&T's sole tenancy at the site from 2014 until it was abandoned. The 2.71-acre commercial parcel sat underutilized on a major arterial corridor in a city that, like most of Orange County, is under significant state pressure to produce new housing. In November 2024, Newmark confirmed it had sold the site to Canadian developer Intracorp, with Taylor Morrison of California ultimately taking title to the land at a purchase price of $22.5 million, according to CoStar records reported by the Orange County Business Journal.

The City of Orange Council unanimously approved the project in May 2024. The approval covers demolition of the existing building and redevelopment of the site into 49 small-lot single-family homes in a mix of paired and detached configurations. The final community as offered by Taylor Morrison comprises 48 homes across three floor plans, with 17 paired units and a set of detached homes along the north property boundary adjacent to existing single-family residences. The CEQA review confirmed the project as an infill development on a commercially zoned site, consistent with the city's Katella corridor housing strategy.

Schools: Orange Unified School District

Viewpoint on Katella is served by the Orange Unified School District. Based on community location, the assigned schools are California Elementary School (grades K to 6, GreatSchools rating 7 out of 10) and Cerro Villa Middle School in Villa Park (grades 7 to 8, rating 4 out of 10). High school assignment is Orange High School (grades 9 to 12, rating 5 out of 10), though Villa Park High School (rating 8 out of 10) serves portions of the surrounding area.

Buyers with school-age children should verify their specific address assignment with Orange Unified directly, as boundary lines in this part of the district can vary by street and parcel. GreatSchools ratings are one input among many and do not fully capture program quality, extracurricular offerings, or school culture. Orange High School in particular has a long history as a comprehensive urban high school and serves a diverse student population; the rating reflects demographic and test-score factors that do not tell the full story of the school's offerings.

What Was Approved: ~180 Single-Family Homes, 4-0 Vote, April 2025

The Brea City Council approved Village at Greenbriar in April 2025 with a 4-0 vote, reflecting strong council support for the project. The primary concern raised during the public hearing process was not opposition to the development itself but rather a practical neighbor concern about parking spillover into the adjacent Glenbrook neighborhood during the construction period and the early leasing and sales phase. The council addressed this through conditions of approval related to construction management and contractor parking, and the project moved forward without significant opposition from the broader community.

A 4-0 vote on a residential subdivision in a California city in 2025 is a meaningful signal. Entitlement votes for new housing can be contentious even when the project is well-designed and the developer is credible. A unanimous approval in Brea suggests the project was positioned well relative to the surrounding neighborhood, that Lennar engaged proactively with the city and neighboring residents during the entitlement process, and that the project fits the land use vision the city has been working toward under its 6th Cycle Housing Element.

How Village at Greenbriar Fits Brea's Broader Development Picture

The four projects in Brea's current development pipeline serve four distinct segments of the housing market. The Brea Mall apartments serve the lifestyle-oriented renter who will pay a premium for walkability and amenity adjacency. Brea Plaza Living serves the commuter-focused renter who values freeway access and day-to-day convenience. Brea 265 will eventually serve multiple buyer types across three density tiers, but its phased oil field remediation timeline means meaningful delivery is years away. Village at Greenbriar serves the for-sale single-family buyer who wants a detached home, a yard, and a builder warranty in a city they already know and trust.

These four projects are largely non-competing. They target different income levels, different lifestyle preferences, and different tenure choices. Together they add approximately 1,780 units to Brea's housing supply and address the majority of the city's 6th Cycle RHNA obligation of 2,365 units. Village at Greenbriar's contribution of roughly 180 for-sale homes is the component of that pipeline most directly relevant to buyers rather than renters, and it is the one most likely to generate immediate market activity in the form of new comparable sales that affect valuations across the broader Brea single-family market.

For existing Brea homeowners, new Lennar comparables at current price points are generally positive for neighborhood values, provided the new homes are priced at or above existing resale values in the area, which is the typical pattern when new construction comes to an established market. New construction rarely undercuts resale in well-located suburban markets because land and construction costs do not allow it. The more common dynamic is that new construction sets a higher price ceiling that pulls up the entire neighborhood.

The Project: Four Stories of Apartments Over a Two-Story Parking Garage

Brea Plaza Living is designed by Architects of Orange, an Orange County-based firm with a track record on infill residential and mixed-use projects across the region. The building sits on a portion of the Brea Plaza shopping center property, with the residential floors beginning above a two-story structured parking garage. The total height of 64 feet puts the building one floor above what a conventional four-story residential building at a standard 15-foot floor-to-floor height would reach, with the parking podium accounting for the additional elevation above ground.

The parking arrangement was one of the approval conditions that required negotiation. The project received a parking reduction agreement, allowing it to count shared parking in the Brea Plaza surface lot toward its residential parking requirement. Shared parking agreements at shopping centers are a common mechanism for urban infill residential projects in California: shopping centers have excess parking capacity during evenings and weekends when residents are most likely to be home, while residents are most likely to be away during daytime retail hours. When structured correctly, a shared arrangement allows a residential building to operate with fewer dedicated spaces than it would otherwise require without creating an actual shortage for either use.

The Site: 265 Acres of Active Oil Land North of the 91 Freeway

The Brea 265 site sits on the hillside north of the 91 Freeway at the eastern edge of the city, in an area that has been used for oil and gas production for most of the 20th century. The Brea oil field is one of the older producing fields in California. It predates most of the city's residential development and has been a background feature of the Brea landscape throughout the city's suburban growth. Driving north on Brea Canyon Road or through the adjacent neighborhoods, the pump jacks and storage tanks on the hillside have been a familiar sight that most Brea residents have simply accepted as part of the local geography.

The 265 acres Aera controls on this site are not a single contiguous parcel. They represent an assemblage of oil field infrastructure and associated land holdings that Aera has operated over time. Converting this kind of land to residential use is a fundamentally different challenge from converting vacant land or underused commercial property. The soil and groundwater conditions on an active oil production site require investigation and remediation before residential construction can begin. California regulatory agencies, including the State Water Resources Control Board and the Department of Conservation's Geologic Energy Management Division, oversee the decommissioning of oil wells and the remediation of associated contamination. Aera's background as an oil company means it has in-house expertise in managing this process, but it also means the development timeline is partly governed by regulatory clearances rather than purely by construction schedules and market conditions.

The location has real advantages that offset the remediation complexity. The 91 Freeway provides direct access to the broader Orange County freeway network and to employment centers in Anaheim, Fullerton, and beyond. The Brea school district, which draws buyers from across North OC, serves the project area. And the hillside topography that makes the oil field less visually appealing as industrial land becomes an asset when the land is cleared and graded for residential use: the elevation changes create natural lot separation and view corridors that flat-land development cannot replicate.

What Brea 265 Means for Buyers and the North OC Market

Brea 265 introduces a product type to the North OC market that does not currently exist: new single-family construction on hillside parcels with views, within the Brea Unified School District, and within walking distance of 7 miles of trails and an expanded community sports park. That combination is genuinely scarce. Comparable hillside product in the Brea trade area means looking at La Habra Heights, Yorba Linda, or the hills above Anaheim Hills, all of which have their own school districts and price structures.

The move-up buyer who has accumulated equity in an existing Brea or North OC home and wants new construction is the natural first-phase customer for the low-density portions of Brea 265. This buyer has typically been forced to look outside Brea for new construction because the city's residential land has been substantially built out for decades. Brea 265 changes that. For the first time in a long time, a buyer who wants to stay in Brea and move up to a newer, larger home on a view lot will have a local option once phases begin to sell.

The medium-density and high-density portions of the community will serve a different buyer and renter profile, one that is less focused on views and lot size and more focused on price point, proximity to the freeway, and access to the parks and trails. This segment will compete more directly with new construction elsewhere in North OC and with the apartment pipeline at Brea Mall and Brea Plaza Living. Together, these projects are producing a range of residential product in Brea that the market has not seen in a single development cycle in the city's history.

Buyers who are serious about purchasing in Brea 265 should track permit filings and builder announcements as the signals that a phase is approaching sales. We will continue following this project as remediation progresses and report when there is concrete movement.

What Simon Is Building: The Full Scope of the Sears Site Redevelopment

The 15.5-acre former Sears site is being rebuilt from the ground up. The existing structure was fully demolished to allow for a development program that could not be accommodated within the original building's footprint or structural grid. What is replacing it is a coordinated mix of residential, fitness, dining, and retail uses organized around a central green and public plaza that ties the new development to the existing mall.

What the Brea Mall Redevelopment Means for Brea Real Estate

The most direct effect of the Brea Mall redevelopment on the surrounding real estate market is the addition of 380 rental units in a location that currently has essentially no comparable product. Brea's existing apartment inventory is predominantly mid-century garden apartments and small complexes built in the 1970s and 1980s. A new five-story building with modern finishes, structured parking, and ground-floor access to Din Tai Fung and Life Time Fitness is a product type that has simply not existed in this market. The first year of leasing will establish what that product commands in rent, and those rents will provide a data point for every subsequent rental and for-sale transaction in the Brea trade area.

For existing Brea homeowners, the tenant upgrades at the mall are the more immediately relevant development. When the full lineup is operating, the center becomes a materially better version of what it already was. Retailers and restaurants of this caliber do not open in markets they are uncertain about. Their presence reinforces Brea's position as a premium North OC address and provides additional justification for the price premium Brea homes have historically commanded over comparable inventory in neighboring cities.

For buyers considering Brea, the construction and leasing timeline at the mall means the full benefit of the redevelopment will be realized gradually over 2025 and 2026. Buyers who purchase before the project is complete are buying into a market where the improvement is priced in partially but not fully, which is generally the better time to buy than after the amenity is fully delivered and fully reflected in comps.

Yorba Linda's Multifamily Zoning Tiers: R-M, R-M-20, and R-M-30

Yorba Linda's residential zoning code includes three multifamily designations, each with different density ceilings and lot requirements. Understanding the differences is essential for identifying which parcels can support which types of projects.

The R-M zone is the lightest-density multifamily designation and applies to a broader range of lot sizes. It is appropriate for small projects on standard residential lots. The R-M-20 and R-M-30 zones require a minimum of one acre, which means the opportunity is concentrated on larger parcels. Existing apartment communities in Yorba Linda provide real-world benchmarks for what these densities look like on the ground: projects at the 20 du/acre range include Oakcrest Heights at 54 units on approximately 2.8 acres and Altrudy Senior Apartments at 48 units on approximately 2.4 acres. These are three-story buildings in neighborhood settings, not high-rise towers.

In addition to these base zones, Yorba Linda's Housing Element includes an Affordable Housing Overlay that allows up to 35 dwelling units per acre on designated parcels, and a Mixed-Use Overlay that also allows up to 35 du/acre. These overlays apply to specific sites identified in the Housing Element and offer a higher ceiling than R-M-30 for qualifying parcels.

Three Stories and What That Actually Looks Like

Developers new to Yorba Linda sometimes ask whether a 20-unit or 30-unit building can be built at three stories. The answer is yes, and the existing inventory in the city confirms it. Three-story walk-up and podium-lite apartment buildings at densities of 19 to 22 du/acre are already present in Yorba Linda. The format is familiar: a ground-level parking structure or surface lot with two or three stories of residential above, or a building with tuck-under parking and a compact footprint that makes efficient use of the site.

At 20 units on one acre, a three-story building with surface parking is often feasible without the expense of a full podium structure. Each floor carries approximately six to seven units, which keeps the building compact and the per-unit construction cost lower than a high-rise or mid-rise product. At 30 units on one acre, tighter parking and a more efficient floor plate are typically required, but three stories remains achievable with the parking relief available under the Density Bonus Law.

The three-story format also matters for neighborhood compatibility in Yorba Linda. The city's existing multifamily inventory is predominantly low-rise. A three-story building reads as consistent with the surrounding context in a way that a five- or six-story building would not. For a project going through site plan review in a city where community opposition is a real risk, a building that does not visually dominate the neighborhood is an asset during the entitlement process.

The Site: Garden Grove Boulevard Between Galway and Brookhurst

Garden Grove Boulevard is the city's primary mixed-use commercial corridor, running east-west through a central portion of the city and anchoring neighborhoods that have historically mixed retail, service commercial, and residential uses in close proximity. The GGMU-3 zone that governs this stretch of the boulevard was designed specifically to enable the kind of transit-adjacent, pedestrian-oriented residential development that the City of Garden Grove identified in its General Plan as a priority for this corridor. Building heights up to 75 feet and residential densities up to 48 units per acre are permitted by right under GGMU-3, and the zone's design standards require boulevard-facing ground-floor treatment that creates an active, walkable street edge.

The project site sits on the north side of Garden Grove Boulevard. An automotive service and repair business abuts the site on its east, a truck accessory and camper shell business on its west, and a multi-family apartment project along its northern boundary. To the south, across Garden Grove Boulevard, is a commercial strip mall. The immediate neighbors are a mix of the older commercial uses that have dominated this stretch of the boulevard for decades and newer residential infill that began to arrive as the GGMU corridor zoning took effect.

The two parcels being combined by the lot line adjustment have a total net area of 58,753 square feet. Parcel 1, on the east side, is 17,500 square feet; Parcel 2, on the west, is 35,000 square feet net (41,253 gross). Consolidating the two into one legal lot is a prerequisite for developing a unified building across the combined site.