Garden Grove hopes to attract more convention business

While the grand dreams of Garden Grove’s International West project never took flight, some development has proven to be successful in the region south of Disneyland on Harbor Blvd. International West was to be a combination of hotels, business centers, and amusement parks designed to make Harbor Blvd between Highway 22 and the I-5 a corridor of action and, not incidentally, tax revenue for the city.

The only thing that materialized was a cluster of nine hotels near the junction of Chapman and Harbor Blvd. It has had some success with the convention business and now the city wants to expand on that with a 50,000 square foot convention center attached to an anchor hotel. They own some of the land already and are ready to move the few remaining businesses and residences left in the way.

The only problem is the city had promised one business owner that he could stay in his location if he invested in the community. Read about the controversy in the OC Register.

More hotel and convention capacity can only be good for Disney and this new hotel does seem to fit in the long term strategy for Garden Grove. It will be curious to see what the end result is.