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Two projects slated to bring more housing in Brea, including a development at the former Mercury Insurance property, will soon be considered by the city’s council members.
Members of the Brea Planning Commission were in favor of a proposal calling for the demolition of the former Mercury Insurance office building and neighboring parking structure at 1698-1700 Greenbriar Lane to make way for 179 single-family houses.
Planning commissioners also supported a proposal for the city to allow construction of Brea Plaza Apartments, a 120-unit apartment building atop a parking structure at Brea Plaza Shopping Center, a retail property across the street from Brea Mall.
Dwight Manley, the former sports agent who represented Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman and has since become the largest property owner in downtown Brea, said both projects would benefit the North Orange County suburb.
Manley’s The Greenbriar Lane submitted plans to redevelop the Mercury Insurance property around the same time the building was sold, late last year.
“Both help increase the supply of housing, a city and region that is in need of more and more affordable places to live,” Manley told the Business Journal in an email.
“In the case of the for-sale homes, Brea has a shortage of homes for sale, and we are seeing 75-year-old 1,300-square-foot to 1,500-square-foot homes selling for over $1,000,000. This leads to more property tax income, more economic activity for the businesses, more students for the schools.”
Brea Plaza Apartments
Jahn Nguyen, a project manager with AO Architects, presented plans for the Brea Plaza Apartments project at the March 11 Planning Commission meeting.
Those plans call for a four-floor apartment building with 120 units to be built on top of a two-floor parking structure with 95 spaces, according to public documents. The project would offer 21 studio, 47 one-bedroom and 52 two-bedroom units.
The apartment building would be 118,520 square feet in size and take up 1.7 acres of the 15.58-acre Brea Plaza Shopping Center.
The proposed apartment project also calls for the demolition of a 7,500-square-foot Buca di Beppo restaurant and replacing it with a 5,000-square-foot standalone structure for a yet-to-be-determined dining tenant.
Six of the 120 units would be designated as affordable housing, according to public documents.
On-site amenities would include a fitness center, community room and outdoor terrace.
From Mercury Insurance to Housing
Brea’s Planning Commission members also advanced an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Greenbriar Residential Project, also known as The Village at Greenbriar, a proposal to replace the former Mercury Insurance building with 179 single-family housing units.
The project is proposed by Lennar Homes of California LLC, per Planning Commission documents.
The Business Journal reported in October 2024 that The Greenbriar Lane, a company associated with Manley, submitted plans to the city of Brea to redevelop the 9.7-acre property, where Mercury Insurance once operated into a housing development.
Lennar plans to demolish the nearly 165,000-square-foot office building and three-level parking structure at 1698-1700 Greenbriar Lane and replace them with attached and detached single-family houses, a private park and open space areas.
Mercury Insurance, one of the largest corporate employers in the city of Brea, sold many of its office holdings in the area – including the office building at 1698-1700 Greenbriar Lane – to an affiliate controlled by one of city’s larger property owners, in a $31.5 million deal.
Both projects must be approved by Brea’s City Council before they can become reality.