OC Vibe Progress Includes a New Concert Hall, Kitchen Concepts, Public Art Programs and More
- Lola Olvera
- 11 minutes ago
- 9 min read
Concert hall programming, the two-story marketplace and the first public plaza are among the offerings that will be public-ready in Anaheim by early next year.
The 62 acres of parking lots around the Honda Center are starting to look a lot less like empty parking lots and a lot more like Anaheim’s new, sprawling, live-work-play district that intends to have it all: multiple entertainment venues, a two-story food/market hall, an apartment community, an office building, a public art program and expansive open spaces. OC Vibe’s ambitious, $4 billion, privately-funded community will begin its phased opening starting March 2027, with a planned completion date of 2033.
Significant progress has been made in the construction of the new 5,000-person-capacity concert hall, including the first seats installed and backstage artist spaces built. The concert hall – designed by global architecture firm Populous, with state-of-the-art acoustics by L-Acoustics – will be capable of hosting concerts, comedy shows, televised programming, award shows, speaking engagements, sporting competitions, esports and more. The venue’s official name and initial programming will be announced in the next several months.
Backstage, artist and production crew will have access to six dedicated dressing rooms, including two private artist suites, a crew kitchen and showers, gated bus parking and an open-air backyard courtyard. The first occupant of the courtyard has already put down roots: a 17-20 year old Arbutus “Marina” tree shipped from the San Francisco Bay.
The construction of the concert hall at OC Vibe is underway. On the left is a rendering of the completed building. On right, construction photo shows the skeletal structure that will hold up the "Stretto" art installation at its entrance. Images courtesy of OC Vibe
The concert hall is just one piece of what will ultimately be a multi-venue ecosystem meant to be a scalable experience for artists at all levels of their careers. Emerging artists have the opportunity to debut at the intimate, 300-person-capacity Golden Bear, advance to the mid-size concert hall and eventually headline the 18,000-person-capacity Honda Center, which is in the midst of a $1 billion hospitality upgrade of its own.
“We’ve hit it kind of on every level, from your organic single solo artist playing all the way till you’re the top rock star,” said Anthony Olheiser, senior vice president of hospitality. “Because we control the entire programming strategy, we can lay out the calendar for the year to make sure that every act that we book at any level complements the other.”
Local artists may even be able to start off even smaller -- playing outdoors at OC Vibe’s future network of parks and plazas, The 20 acres of open space will host an extensive public art gallery and a robust calendar of public programming, including live performances, community markets, fitness classes and workshops.
“We want to make this place easy to get to, get out of your car with your family and friends, and come out and just experience the Orange County fresh air,” said Scott Frick, senior vice president of real estate and district operations. “That really anchors the project as a whole. It’s not what you have to buy a ticket for but it’s a great place to come and be outdoors and experience the environment.”
Eventually the outdoor spaces will encompass three miles of interconnected trails available for walking, jogging and cycling between all areas of the district. The parks and plazas are each designed with themes inspired by Orange County’s natural history.
South Plaza, complete with a garden and tables and chairs, is envisioned as a focal gathering point. Broad, grassy Meadow Park will be bordered by a winding trail inspired by the Santa Ana River. The polished landscape of Urban Park draws inspiration from the region’s desert and agricultural ecologies. Neighborhood Park, nestled between the upcoming six residential buildings, will feature two large meadows along with diverse plants and rocky accents.
The first public plaza will open in early 2027, along with one of the most ambitious aspects of the outdoor space: an extensive public art exhibition by a cohort of local and national artists.
In partnership with San Francisco-based art and design studio Futureforms, OC Vibe’s public art program will boast more than 70 original artworks accessible throughout the district's buildings, parks, plazas and pedestrian corridors. The collection will include large-scale landmarks, dozens of murals, permanent and rotating installations and commissioned interior works, making it “one of the most diverse, curated collections of free, outdoor public art in the country,” according to OC Vibe.
Carla Roque’s mural “Gratitude,” a warm, sun-soaked ode to beauty and abundance, will be part of the inaugural cohort of artworks. The Anaheim-born artist, who now lives in Fullerton, has built a strong local reputation painting murals for Anaheim Elementary School District and in other cities, like Tustin and La Habra.
Carla Roque, left, and “Gratitude” her mural. Images courtesy of OC Vibe.
Growing up, she remembered seeing Glenna Avila’s “L.A. Freeway Kids” mural rushing past from the window of her family’s car. Now, “Gratitude” will be one of two murals on prominent display on the exterior of the Katella Garage parking structure.
“It kind of became my dream to have art on the freeway like that, where everybody could see it,” Roque said. “So after getting this opportunity with OC Vibe and knowing that it's visible from the 57 freeway, that was really exciting to me.”
OC Vibe’s tagline, “the new heart of Orange County,” inspired her to reflect on her connection to her grandparents, who grew up in Anaheim in the early 1900s. Her grandfather dropped out of Anaheim High School to pick oranges to help support his family and her grandmother worked at a packing house.
“I feel like I make my best art when I have an emotional connection,” she said. “There's just a lot to be grateful for, living in Orange County.”
Three other artworks have been announced as part of the inaugural cohort. Adjacent to Roque’s “Gratitude” will be mural “Rhythm, Flavor, Motion,” an energetic trio of portraits representing music, food and sports, by Florida-based artist Brian Peterson. Peterson is also known in Orange County for “Faces of Santa Ana,” a stirring portrait series of the homeless neighbors he met when he and his wife lived in the area.
“Stretto,” a reflective, 62-foot-tall sculpture made of slatted metal panels, is a piece created by Nataly Gattegno and Jason Kelly Johnson of Futureforms. It will adorn the concert hall’s exterior; beneath it will be the upcoming Stretto Café. Berlin-based multimedia artist Marina Zumi’s landscape piece “Sunrise-Sunset” merges together Orange County’s Limestone Canyon and Huntington Beach sunset through digital stitch patterns that create a cohesive image from afar.
Katella Commons. An artist rendering, left, and the current state of construction, right. Images courtesy of OC Vibe.
The first installations are close to completion outside the concert hall and within Katella Commons, the district’s 50,000-square-foot, two-story market hall.
When it opens in early 2027, Katella Commons will offer 21 chef-driven kitchens and six bar and lounge concepts. The newly announced kitchen concepts – with more on the way – reflect OC Vibe’s commitment to highlight Southern California’s cultural and culinary diversity.
“Step one was to identify, from a cuisine perspective, where we wanted to go, short-term and long-term,” Olheiser said. “The easiest next step was, let's find best-in-class chefs, best-in-class partners that are here locally that understand what Orange County is about, understand what Anaheim needs, love the community, love the locals, love the people, have a great following.”
OC Vibe’s first signature restaurant announcement is internationally-acclaimed Korean barbecue restaurant Best Friend, led by James Beard Award-winning chef Roy Choi, whose initial Korean-Mexican taco truck Kogi helped popularize the gourmet food truck trend. Best Friend’s high-energy flagship location at Park MGM in Las Vegas has been highly successful, and Katella Commons will be its second location.
Choi was born in Seoul, South Korea and grew up in Los Angeles and Orange County, including Anaheim. He attended Villa Park High School and California State University, Fullerton.
“He's got such strong ties to L.A. and Orange County,” Olheiser said. “When you think about … the demographics and the different nationalities of folks that live in Southern California, in Orange County, when we talk about the Asian communities and the Hispanic communities … being able to bring everybody together to Best Friend and have that menu really transcend the Southern California market, it just makes a ton of sense.”
Katella Commons will also be getting a small taste of Manaao Thai Comfort Food in the form of Khao Soi, a specialized outpost with a menu focused on its signature Thai curries. The popular restaurant, led by Kanate Ungkasrithongkul and Anita Lin, has locations in Tustin and the Irvine Spectrum Center, and its authentic Khao Soi won a spot on the Los Angeles Times’ “Best Dishes” list.
Chef Zach Scherer, who co-founded Santa Ana’s Darkroom Restaurant and Wine Bar, is bringing elevated versions of classic comfort foods to OC Vibe. One concept will offer a New York style pizza made using bakery-level dough techniques, while the other will offer fried chicken in the style of different global traditions.
Other concepts will include “Mexitalian” cuisine Amiga Amore, led by chefs Danielle Duran Zecca and Alessandro Zecca; Chef Alberto Bañuelos’ Burritos La Palma, famous for its beef birria burritos and Zacatecan-style flour tortilla burritos; and heavy metal themed Mexican concept Evil Cooks, run by Alex “Pobre Diablo” Garcia and Elvia “La Bruja” Huerta.
“We’re really thoughtful about how we strategize and make sure that there are multiple offerings for every type of diner,” Olheiser said. “If it’s everyday lunch where you want to spend $10, $15, $20, you can do that. If you want to have a tremendous anniversary dinner at one of our restaurants and want to spend more than that, you can do that as well.”
Olheiser is part of the newly announced market hall leadership team, which also includes Nicholas P. Pacific as vice president of Katella Commons and Chef Rémi Lauvand, who will lead the culinary programming.
Katella Commons could become the preferred lunch meeting spot for the working professionals at OC Vibe’s six-story mass timber office building, The Weave. The 168,000-square-foot LEED Gold-designed building will feature tranquil, nature-inspired aesthetics, large windows, natural light and private terraces and porches. It is intended to meet the evolving needs of the modern workforce and allow workers to transition seamlessly from work to play.
Office and co-working provider Kiln will be launching its first Anaheim location at OC Vibe, with one full floor of The Weave dedicated to its workspace options, including team suites, private offices and meeting rooms. Leasing opportunities and opening details will be announced within the next few months.
The Weave will be walking distance from the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center, which is where OC Vibe already held its first community event, a free watch party of the final match of the FIFA World Cup 2026 that was estimated to have had around 750 people in attendance. As parts of the district are unveiled early next year, OC Vibe will announce opening events for the public to get a first look. It will also allow the public to get a better understanding of what traffic and parking will look like around the district.
Frick says that OC Vibe worked closely with the city of Anaheim and Caltrans, among other local agencies, to learn from environmental and traffic studies as they crafted their traffic flow strategy.
“The way traffic flows into and out of OC Vibe is state-of-the-art,” he said. “We built new roads, we built new parking structures. Ingress and egress out of the decks is seamless. No one's standing there to take your money when you go in and out, which is typically what backs cars out onto the streets. We've got our first season under our belt and the response from ticketed guests has just been overwhelmingly positive.”
However, Chapman University’s Chapman News reported in May that there was confusing gridlock after a Ducks game, affecting both car drivers and pedestrians.
There have also been complaints by others on Facebook and Reddit about the traffic and congestion OC Vibe is going to bring to an already busy area, just blocks from the notorious Orange Crush interchange – the convergence of the 5, 22 and 57 freeways.
OC Vibe has proposed creating a roadway adjacent to the Santa Ana River, connecting Ball Road to Katella Avenue, and meant to alleviate traffic congestion along Katella Avenue and Douglass Road. Renderings also show a pedestrian bridge over Katella Avenue and other elevated pathways that could allow visitors to visit the district without navigating the throngs of traffic before and after events. In collaboration with the city of Anaheim and regional transit agencies, project organizers may also improve public transit connections to the nearby area.
Along with Anaheim’s current residents, traffic flow could be a major concern for the future tenants of OC Vibe’s six residential buildings, which will open in 2028, with capacity for more than 2,000 units. Frick says that OC Vibe voluntarily committed to offering 15% of the units as affordable housing.
“This was very intentional from us,” Frick said. “We want to make sure, for our future apartments, that there's a home for all levels of the community, whether you need a very low apartment up to a very premium apartment and everything in between.”
Roque appreciates that the free parking and public parks will make OC Vibe accessible for Anaheim residents of all income levels to enjoy.
“People are looking for communal spaces, things to do in Orange County,” she said.
Constant variety is something that Olheiser says the community can count on: “No day will be the same.”
