Move over, Manhattan.
A $1 billion mega-project in Orange County is set to transform an old military base into what could become one of the biggest urban parks in America — complete with lakes, museums, shopping, an amphitheater and enough space to dwarf New York’s Central Park.
The sprawling 1,300-acre Great Park in Irvine is undergoing a massive overhaul that city leaders hope will turn the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro into Southern California’s next major entertainment and tourism hub.
By 2029, the park is expected to surpass San Diego’s 1,200-acre Balboa Park in size and almost double the size of the Big Apple’s crown jewel of green space.
Developers and city leaders have openly pitched the Great Park as a future West Coast counterpart to Central Park, except this version comes with amphitheaters, giant man-made lakes, retail villages and a sprawling complex.
Once completed, it is expected to rival the nation’s largest metropolitan parks.
At the center of the space is the so-called “Heart of the Park,” a gigantic new entertainment and recreation zone featuring two lakes with multiple cascading waterfalls, a Great Meadow, walking trails and even a farm.
Plans also call for a 10,000-seat amphitheater, called The Amp, that could restore Orange County’s outdoor concert scene after the closures of both Irvine Meadows Amphitheater and FivePoint Amphitheatre. The entertainment push is already well under way.
The city opened a temporary live music venue called Great Park Live in 2024, with room for 10,000 fans, food vendors and more while the permanent amphitheater is built.
There is also a 194-acre athletics hub packed with soccer fields, baseball and softball diamonds, volleyball courts and one of the region’s biggest soccer stadiums.
The park’s most recognizable attraction is already operational — a giant orange balloon that can carry visitors 400 feet above the ground.
Elsewhere, developers are building what is being called the “Cultural Terrace,” a massive arts and museum district that will include the Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum, the Asian American History Museum, a Pretend City Children’s Museum and other exhibit spaces housed partially in restored military hangars.
The park’s northern section will feature a sprawling botanical garden with trails, dry creeks, maze gardens, arboretums and themed spaces. A Veterans Memorial park and Garden is also planned, preserving portions of the old military tarmac as a 1,100-foot-long “Walk of Honor” dedicated to Orange County veterans.
The project also includes a glossy retail hub.
Dubbed “The Canopy,” the 90,000-square-foot shopping and dining area will include restaurants, grocery stores and retail spaces designed to be an “all-day destination.” Canadian Asian grocery giant T&T Supermarket is slated to open in the space in the winter, along with an In-N-Out Burger.
The city estimates the park could eventually attract more than 7.5 million people each year.
“There’s a massive amount of earth-moving and building going on behind the scenes,” Irvine City Council member Mike Carroll told the Orange County Business Journal earlier this year.
The project first broke ground in June of 2023, and is expected to be completed in 2029.
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