Anyone who drives Main Street past the mall this year has seen the sign. A billboard perched over the construction fencing reads, in essence, that something big is coming and MainPlace 2.0 is on its way. For Morrison Park residents who watch that stretch of road most days, on the drive to Santiago Elementary or the cut-through to the 5, the billboard has been up longer than anything has visibly changed behind it. Dirt lots. Chain-link. A vacant anchor box that has sat empty since Nordstrom closed its doors there in 2017.
That gap between promise and progress is worth sorting out, because two very different things are happening at MainPlace right now, and only one of them has a shovel in the ground.
The Full Vision, According to the Planning Documents
The eventual build-out that city planning documents describe for MainPlace is large by any Orange County standard: up to 1,900 residential units, 400 hotel rooms, 750,000 square feet of office space, and nearly half a million square feet of new small-shop retail. Tucked into that same long-range plan is a music and events hall sized at 58,000 square feet with room for 4,000 people, the kind of venue that would put MainPlace in a different category than a shopping center with a food court.
That is the version on the billboard. It is also, as of this writing, mostly still a rendering.
What Actually Broke Ground in March
The concrete part of the story started March 25, 2026, when developer Centennial and its partner Lowe Enterprises broke ground on a $250 million phase of the project. Two pieces are moving now.
The first is The Carina, an 8-story, 408-unit apartment building rising on the mall property. Set that number against the long-range plan's ceiling of 1,900 total units and you get a clearer read on where things stand: The Carina represents roughly one in five of the units eventually envisioned for the site, not the finished picture.
The second is the MainPlace Culinary District, a 1.25-acre outdoor dining and gathering space with three full-service restaurants, landscaped courtyards, and a central area built for programming. Centennial CEO Steven Levin described the intent behind that space in blunt terms: "It's about creating a place where people want to spend time." A colleague working on the project went further, telling the Orange County Business Journal the courtyard is meant to host live performances and community events, the kind of programming Levin compared to Shakespeare in the Park.
Here is the side-by-side, so it is easy to see what belongs to the master plan and what belongs to 2026:
| Component | Long-range master plan | Under construction now (broke ground 3/25/26) |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | Up to 1,900 units | The Carina: 408 units, 8 stories |
| Dining and gathering space | 492,000 sq ft of small-shop retail; 58,000 sq ft, 4,000-capacity events hall | MainPlace Culinary District: 1.25 acres, 17,000 sq ft outdoor plaza, 3 full-service restaurants |
| Hotel | 400 rooms | Not yet started |
| Office | 750,000 sq ft | Not yet started |
The hotel and office components aren't dead, they simply haven't reached the groundbreaking stage that housing and dining have. If the fencing near the old Nordstrom pad hasn't moved much, that is likely why.
What's Already Open, No Hard Hat Required
While the big-ticket pieces are under construction, the mall's day-to-day retail mix has kept turning over. MainPlace recently welcomed a run of new tenants, including Cali Licious Crab and Brews, a Mex-Cajun restaurant and bar serving micheladas, alongside Yogurt Bear, Fiesta Center, LA Custom Apparel + Accessories, The Hype Makers Market, and Delight.
The mall's longer-standing anchors are still trading through the construction. Macy's and JCPenney remain, along with 24 Hour Fitness Super Sport, Ashley HomeStore, Round 1 Bowling & Amusement, and Picture Show Theaters. On the food side, Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ, California Pizza Kitchen, Panini Kabob Grill, and Wokcano are all part of the current tenant roster. None of that requires waiting for the Culinary District or The Carina to finish.
That Nordstrom box has been empty for going on nine years now, a fact that says something about how long this stretch of Main Street has been waiting for a next chapter, redevelopment plans or not.
The Outdoor Space Morrison Park Already Has
A programmed outdoor plaza isn't a new idea for this part of Santa Ana. It's just new to the mall. Morrison Park's own namesake park, a modest five-acre spot near Westwood and Corrigan, already handles picnics, basketball, and a multipurpose field for the neighborhood. A short walk or drive gets residents to Eldridge Park, where shaded paths wind through mature trees, or to Riverview Park, home to the public 18-hole Riverview Golf Course. Santiago Park, a bit further out, reopened its renovated playgrounds in 2023 and still runs an archery range along its paved trails.
None of that competes with what MainPlace is building. It does mean the neighborhood isn't starting from zero on outdoor gathering space while it waits for the Culinary District's courtyard to open. When that space is finished, it will be additive to an area that already has room to walk a dog, shoot a round of golf, or let kids loose on a playground.
The Thesis, Stated Plainly
The billboard and the groundbreaking are telling two different stories, and conflating them is the easiest way to be surprised, either by expecting a finished entertainment district that is still years off, or by assuming nothing is really happening because the hotel and office towers haven't broken ground. What's true right now, in late summer of 2026, is narrower and more useful: an apartment building and an outdoor dining plaza are under active construction, a handful of new shops and restaurants are already open, and the rest of the master plan sits on paper until Centennial and Lowe Enterprises decide it's time to break more ground.
For anyone living in Morrison Park, that's the version worth tracking. Not the 1,900-unit fantasy, and not the assumption that a construction fence means nothing's changed. Just the 408 units, the three restaurants, and the courtyard built for the kind of evening you might actually walk to.
If you're curious how developments like this tend to ripple through nearby home values and neighborhood character over time, that's a longer conversation, and one Better Living SoCal is always glad to have. Talk with a local agent who's already watching what's happening at MainPlace and what it might mean for your corner of Santa Ana.
