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The Honda Center is the latest billion-dollar project on the belt of Henry and Susan Samueli, owners of the Ducks hockey team.
The Samuelis are funding a $1.1 billion overhaul of the Anaheim venue to complement their existing 100-acre OCVibe mixed use development, an investment worth $4 billion. The project is currently called Honda Center Encore.
“In many ways, our work in the Honda Center represents the culmination of the capstone, if you will, of OCVibe, and it enables us to complete the district in a tremendous way,” Morell Marean, chief operating officer at OC Sports & Entertainment, told the Business Journal. “It really completes the design work that we’ve been working on for several years.”
Marean also oversees operational performance, asset management and guest experience of OCVibe’s upcoming portfolio of businesses, which is currently known to include the Golden Bear concert hall, A Restaurant and its Market Hall concept.
The Honda Center is scheduled to undergo a complete renovation of its club and suite options, food and beverage concepts, entryways and parking.
“Our renovations are going to touch every level of the arena, and they’re going to support every guest coming to the arena,” Marean added.
Though the overhaul was announced in late April, work at the arena began last fall. Construction will continue in phases until 2027, city officials said. The arena will remain open during construction.
OC Sports & Entertainment aims to make the venue the centerpiece of the OCVibe district.
“Our investments in the Honda Center will enable it to be an incredible place to see sports and music and entertainment for the next 30 years as well,” Marean said.
The renovation was announced on the heels of the center’s approval to be the host venue of indoor Olympic volleyball in 2028.
“This is more than just an investment in a venue—it’s an investment in Anaheim and the future of Orange County as a global destination for live entertainment,” Bill Foltz, CEO of OC Sports & Entertainment, said.
Enhancements on Every Level
Marean said the amenities they chose to enhance were determined by surveying visitors over the years to “better understand their priorities.”
Starting with the exterior, new entryways have been designed for each side of the Honda Center. The main South entrance will be built into five floors with ground-level entry, an outdoor balcony and a “high-impact” digital display over the top three stories, according to renderings.
Marean noted that each gate will open to a different part of the OCVibe district.
“There really is a sense of almost four different ecosystems outside four doors of the arena,” Marean said, referring to OCVibe’s residential sector on the North side, the concert hall and urban plaza to the West and even the bike path and Santa Ana River on the East.
The main entrance will be “a heavily Ducks-themed neighborhood” with a new team retail store and a Ducks-themed restaurant adjacent to the South doors.
Food and beverage options will all be redone.
Ten new concepts will be included throughout the center. Four new food outlets—a new pizzeria, burger spot, barbecue and taqueria—located at each corner of the fourth level are scheduled to open by fall 2025.
Other updates will include the installation of self-serve ordering technology to make sure guests get back to their seats faster.
“A tremendous amount of our investment is going into that. We’re going to be enhancing our food and beverage capacities by roughly 30% across the building in order to shorten wait times,” Marean said.
On the second level of seating, a newly designed all-inclusive club space will be built for a more “upscale” guest experience. The Jack Daniels club will be redone as well.
All 68 current luxury suites will be renovated, and new opera box suites will also be introduced on the main concourse.
New escalators to the upper levels will be added “to improve vertical circulation and enhance guest flow.”
Three new general parking garages, meant to add over 6,000 stalls, will increase available parking by nearly 60%.
Two of the garages are slated to open this year with the third to follow in 2026.
“Our goal in developing this project has been to enable Honda Center to be the most compelling arena experience in the country, and I think we’re delivering on that objective,” Morean said.