This would be a good time to own a backhoe business.
Look around town, there are backhoes and tractors digging up the dirt, making way for more housing and commercial construction all around Brea.
One project really charging ahead is the expansion of Brea Mall.
I got a peek at the new, much larger and beautiful Pottery Barn, located in the new outdoor area of the mall. By the time you read this, it may already be open. It is located across the new grassy area from the beautiful Rivian dealership. Brea Mall keeps getting bigger and better, and it isn’t done yet.
Another project taking shape is the Andaluz townhome project at Brea Boulevard and Fir Street, where McCullloch’s shoe store once stood. No doubt it will be a huge improvement for that corner and a welcome addition to our city.
According to Alia Jacob of Van Daele Homes, Andaluz will have 32, three-story modern Spanish townhomes to own with two or three bedrooms. Three will be live-work units facing Brea Boulevard.
Jacobs said that they expect to have a model grand opening in summer 2026, along with the unveiling of their Art in Public Places piece, required by the City for most projects valued at $1.5 million or more.
“We are very excited to bring this community to life,” Jacobs said.
At the Brea Union Plaza on Imperial Boulevard at Associated Road, construction continues on a two-story building that will house the Barnes & Noble on the first floor and the Grand Salon and Aliss Medspa on the second floor. It is located where the movie theatre once was.
In addition, Ubatuba Acai is going in where Creamistry was located and Chef Cut is opening next to Mother’s Market, where The Butchery once was.
And the planned Brea Plaza Apartments? According to the developer, the 110 apartments to be built above a parking structure won’t start until sometime next year. They will consist of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom rental apartments.
Next to the Brea Union Plaza, major demolition work continues, transforming the former Mercury Savings office building and parking structure into the Village at Greenbriar, where 179 housing units will include 176 duplexes, five-plexes and 10-plexes, plus three stand-alone homes and open space.
Gaslight Square at Imperial Highway and Flower Street should beautifully transform with a 2,000-square-foot restaurant with a drive-thru and outdoor seating, plus a 6,000-square-foot commercial building for medical or retail space and a 2,400-square-foot restaurant. The reconfigured parking lot will have 92 parking spaces.
But the Grand Daddy of all the Brea construction projects has to be Brea 265; Aera Energy’s planned transformation of its oil fields into a place for people to call “home.”
Brea 265, west of Lambert Road and Valencia Avenue, will take many years to complete, but will eventually include 1,100 single-family and multi-family units on 265 acres, plus parks, hiking trails that meet up with the Tracks at Brea trails.
Its plans also include widening Rose Drive, adding land to the Brea Sports Park and Olinda Elementary School, and other area amenities, including a pedestrian tunnel beneath Lambert Road.
Summertime is definitely construction time this year in Brea!
Terri Daxon is a freelance writer and the owner of Daxon Marketing Communications. She gives her perspective on Brea issues twice a month. Contact her at daxoncomm@gmail.com.