Reagan Building a Shining Success

Four years after its unveiling as the crown jewel of downtown Santa Ana, the mammoth Ronald Reagan Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse is nearing capacity. And some nearby merchants said the facility is boosting downtown business as well.

Officials said about 10,000 square feet of office space remains vacant in the building, most of it courtrooms and offices that will be filled when Congress approves three more U.S. District Court judges for the county. Office space in the building totals 517,360 square feet.

“Vacancy is not a problem. The U.S. Attorney’s office and marshal recently expanded their presence in the building,” said Allen Leslein, architect for the U.S. Central District of California, which includes Orange County. “The Bankruptcy Court is pretty much at full steam. If it wasn’t for the empty courtrooms [where criminal and civil trials are held], most of the office space would be taken up.”

Leslein said that as more employees are moved to the Ronald Reagan building, the space they leave behind in other buildings is quickly filled by other federal workers. Twenty years ago, most federal agencies in Orange County, including the IRS and FBI, were housed in the old Federal Building at the Santa Ana Civic Center.

Today, the FBI occupies 25,000 square feet of private office space in Santa Ana, said General Services Administration spokeswoman Bethany Rich.

“It would be ideal to have the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies in the Ronald Reagan Building, but the available space there doesn’t meet the needs of these agencies,” said Rich.

When completed in January 1999, the Ronald Reagan building was expected to accommodate federal prosecutors and judges in Orange County. Previously, federal trials were held in modular courtrooms on the southwest corner of the Civic Center.

Almost from the day construction began, the elegant structure with gleaming green glass and travertine marble was trumpeted as an economic boon to Santa Ana, which had just begun an ambitious downtown redevelopment program.

The 10-story building occupies what used to be a couple of city blocks and towers over the two- and three-story brick buildings that have been fixtures in the downtown area for about 70 years. Its modern facade of glass and light-colored marble, accented by a huge gold-colored U.S. seal, stands out but also complements the red brick buildings built three generations ago, many say.

“I love what the new building has done for downtown and my restaurant,” said Laverna Gilbert, manager of Shelly’s Bistro, across from the Ronald Reagan building. “Business has tripled since it opened. We had to remodel and put a patio outside to accommodate our customers.”

Gilbert said her growing customer base includes the building’s employees and its visitors, who also show up for live jazz on Friday and Saturday nights when the restaurant remains open until 11:30 p.m. But she admits there are days when the restaurant is not as busy. Those days usually coincide with the slow days at the federal building, said Gilbert.

When the building opened in 1999, officials estimated that as many as 4,000 people would use it every day for business. But often the areas that are accessible to the public are empty. Leslein said the courthouse corridors look empty at times because of “the nature of how court business is conducted these days.”

“Nowadays, a lot of court work is done in chambers and through telephonic conferences. A lot of legal issues get resolved without going to trial,” he said.