Bella Terra Phase 2 presented

Company officials behind the Bella Terra shopping mall made their best pitch this week to the City Council on the proposed next step at the popular open-air shopping center.

Phase 2 would feature mixed-use buildings with condos and residences above high-end shops, along with an ambitious attempt at encouraging people to get out of their cars and join a vibrant street life.

Representatives from DJM Capital Partners made their presentation at a study session Monday to add roughly 156,000 square feet of retail development and 500 housing units to the development.

Designers looked at historical buildings, downtown Huntington Beach and the Bolsa Chica wetlands to get insights into the “casual culture” of the city, which it intends to emphasize in the project, said Marios Savopoulos, a principal architect for Perkowitz and Ruth Architects, which also worked on the original Bella Terra for DJM.

“The plan was to create a self-contained village,” he said. “We’re creating an allegiance for the community in terms of repeat visits. We’re doing everything we can do to activate the street and make the public spaces successful.”

Bella Terra Phase 2 is designed for higher-end retailers like the Apple Store and Crate and Barrel, said Lindsay Parton of DJM. The new development is designed to make such companies feel more at home than in the original project, where discount stores like Mervyns and Burlington Coat Factory may have scared them off.

“We’re attracting a higher level of tenanting,” he said. “We can take some tenants who want to come in to something a little bit nicer.”

The new development would wrap condos and apartments around major parking structures to hide them from view, use a series of parks and piazzas to encourage walking and outdoor activities, and vary the size and style of buildings so they seem like real urban blocks, Savopoulos said. Retailers would move in below lofts and other residential units, putting residents in walking distance of shops and — once DJM purchases and integrates the adjacent Pacific Plaza commercial park, as it plans to do this week — office jobs.

“We’re going to create the first live/work/play community in Huntington Beach,” said DJM President D. John Miller. “This will be one of the best things that has ever hit north Orange County. It will be a destination, with a sense of place, that people will know from all over the region.”