Orange County is home to the largest population of Vietnamese people outside of Vietnam. Within the thriving ethnic enclave is a collection of strip malls spanning parts of Westminster, Garden Grove, Fountain Valley and Santa Ana known as Little Saigon.
Vietnamese grocery stores, restaurants and delis, totaling in more than 4,000 businesses, line the streets of Little Saigon – a district whose principal developer is Frank Jao.
His company, Bridgecreek Group Co., has developed more than $400 million in retail, condo and apartment space since its founding in 1978. The group also owns and manages upwards of 1.5 million square feet in Southern California.
Its umbrella of businesses include Bridgecreek Development, Bridgecreek Realty Services, Bridgecreek International and Bridgecreek Asia.
Arriving in America
Before he became known as the most influential developer of Little Saigon, Jao was a refugee from Vietnam.
Jao, along with five other local Vietnamese American entrepreneurs, are being recognized by the Business Journal this week in commemoration of 50 years since the fall of Saigon under the title: “Vietnam’s Loss, Orange County’s Gain.”
Jao still remembers the events of April 28, 1975, as if it were yesterday.
He left Vietnam on the second-to-last plane, a C-130, headed out of Saigon International Airport to America.
“We had no choice,” Jao told the Business Journal. “We either jump in the aircraft and leave or stay behind.”
Anyone who chose to stay behind would have been captured and arrested the next day, Jao said.
His group was shipped out of Saigon to the Clark Air Base in the Philippines, then to Guam before reaching the Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Orange County in early May 1975.
Jao described those first few weeks in America as “exciting” because it was his first time in the country.
The very first job he said he applied for was to be a janitor at a hospital, which rejected him for not having enough experience.
“The procedure of cleaning a floor is a technique not just anybody can do, they said, so I was rejected,” Jao said.
Jao ended up working as a security guard, a job that gave him enough time to figure out what special trade he wanted to specialize in. He settled on real estate for two main reasons.
“If I can turn one transaction per month, I can live well up in my level of economic needs,” Jao said. “Second, real estate is a product that speaks for itself. Half of the selling job is already done by the property itself.”
He opened his own commercial real estate office in 1978. Nine months in, he decided to switch to development and took night classes at local colleges on financing, design and construction management.
Bridgecreek has developed over 2 million square feet of retail, condo and apartment space with one of the most recent ones being the Jasmine Place apartment complex in Westminster, next to the Jao-built Asian Garden Mall. Bridgecreek led the initial development of the $57 million, 144-unit complex back in 2009.
The project, previously called Saigon Villas, was originally intended to be a senior-housing condominium but was then placed in receivership and converted to an upscale rental complex due to financial troubles.
The company’s portfolio also includes properties such as Asian Village Center, Cultural Court and Bolsa Magnolia Center in Westminster.
Developing Little Saigon
An estimated 125,000 Vietnamese refugees came to the U.S., followed by a second wave that fled Vietnam by boat for neighboring countries before resettling here.
Despite U.S. policies intended to disperse refugees and prevent the creation of ethnic enclaves, many settled in Orange County, drawn to the familiar weather and job opportunities.
“Orange County then was providing not only good, affordable housing but also a lot of jobs to people who moved there,” Jao said.
The influx of a new demographic to the region made the lack of Vietnamese stores and restaurants apparent to Jao, so he approached the owner of a small family-operated grocery store to open a location in Orange County.
“That was the beginning of the idea of a special enclave for the new group of Vietnamese immigrants in Orange County,” Jao said.
Jao was one of the early developers to buy empty land along Bolsa Avenue. At the time, he said that there was more low-end land available in Garden Grove and Westminster compared to other cities.
The continued influx of Vietnamese immigrants to the U.S. throughout the 1970s and 1980s caused business to grow “faster than I knew how to keep up with,” Jao said.
In 1987, Bridgecreek completed development of the Asian Garden Mall, the first Vietnamese American shopping mall in the community. Today, it stands as the centerpiece of Little Saigon.
The 165,000-square-foot, two-story building visually stands out amongst other buildings in OC with its green-tiled roofs and ornate entrance. Outside in the front are three statues of Vietnamese deities representing fortune, prosperity and longevity.
Asian Garden Mall has more than 200 local and minority-owned businesses, selling cultural products ranging from traditional áo dài dresses to high-end jewelry.
“I learned to just follow people, see what they need and provide service to the needs of the people,” Jao said. “If you understand that, then you have a good, viable business.”
Reshaping Historical Narratives
Jao, often referred to as the Father of Little Saigon, has since passed off the management duties of Bridgecreek to his daughter Felicia Jao.
He said that he’s still active with the company in an advisory role and makes himself available when needed.
“I guide them on what I think the future should be,” Jao said.
The company is currently working on a prefabricated housing project in Nevada that’s expected to be completed by September.
Bridgecreek is building a house that’s 30% less than the conventional cost, according to Jao.
“We’re very close to being approved by the state,” he said.
In his free time, Jao is involved in philanthropy at various universities, including the University of California, Irvine, California State University, Fullerton and Coastline Community College.
He’s the founding donor of the Harvard Global Vietnam Wars Studies Program at Harvard University, an initiative dedicated to uncovering untold stories from the Vietnam War, where more than 58,000 Americans and close to 4 million Vietnamese died in the conflict.
Wanting to help the next generation not repeat the mistakes of the past is what motivates Jao to get involved in these types of initiatives, he said.
“I feel like the next generation and even myself should benefit from this knowledge so we can improve and also appreciate what we have done right,” Jao said.