To celebrate its soon-to-be-constructed 250-unit luxury appartment building, executives from Legacy Partners joined together with city and business leaders on Thursday Feb. 18 for a mid-morning Groundbreaking Ceremony at the 580 Anton Blvd. South Coast Metro location.

Standing in front of the active construction site complete with bulldozers, Timothy O’Brien, the managing director of Legacy Partners hailed the virtues of this new project and all it stands to offer the residents who will live within walking distance of world-class dining, shopping and entertainment.

“We set out to design something that is timeless, classic and beautiful,” O’Brien said. “This is a fantastic place to develop a project.”

O’Brien, a lifelong Costa Mesa resident who attended Estancia High School, also complimented the city employees who assisted him in getting this project approved,  and he even went as far as calling Costa Mesa’s staff the best in the state.

Costa Mesa Mayor Steve Mensinger and Councilwoman Sandy Genis also attended the event and heaped praise on the project and what it will mean to Costa Mesa.

“This project stands to create tens of thousands of jobs,” Mensinger said.

When complete, the building will yield more than 200,000 square feet of rentable space, which will have luxury amenities and appliances as well as a fully fitted clubhouse, a concierge entry, a dog-wash station, a fitness center with a lake view, a wine bar and much more.

Legacy Partners, a privately held real estate firm based in San Francisco, acquired the former retail center in May of 2015 in a joint venture with Prudential Real Estate Investors. The development is set to complete by fall of 2017.

Council Member Sandra Genis and members of the city staff attended the opening of the 35th Annual USVA Tet Festival this past weekend at the OC Fair and Event Center.

Costa Mesa was once again home the world’s largest Tet Festival, attracting over 60,000 guests to the three-day event.

Featuring culturally enriching attractions, live entertainment, festive games and rides, a variety of ethnic foods, and a spectacular firecrackers show, the festival celebrated the Lunar New Year and the “Year of the Monkey.”

UVSA is a 501(c)3 non-profit, non-partisan, community-based organization founded in 1982 to bring together Vietnamese American youth including students from different colleges and high schools throughout Southern California.

The festival serves as a vehicle to help develop student volunteers in the community to become well-rounded leaders with a strong sense of cultural awareness and civic responsibility to improve their communities.

Over the past 15 years, UVSA’s members have awarded over $1.25 million of festival proceeds as community grants to non-profit organizations across Southern California.