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April 16, 2024 To: Honorable Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua and City Council From: Lawna Munholland, Property Manager, Metro Town Square Shopping Center Re: Related Bristol Redevelopment 1 Take Action Now Hello, Honorable Mayor Valerie Amezcua and members of the Santa Ana City Council. Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Lawna Munholland, the Property Manager for Metro Town Square Shopping Center on Bristol Street adjacent to South Coast Plaza in south Santa Ana. I am here on behalf of the nearly 100 tenants at our 41-acre center, one of the largest and most important sales tax producing shopping and dining centers in Santa Ana. Nearly two years ago, Related California started meeting with every single tenant, large and small, at our center. They presented the vision for Related Bristol as a dynamic, highly walkable mixed -use makeover of our once bustling shopping center. All the Tenants were excited. Our Tenants are now increasingly frustrated, and even angry, that the much needed and long overdue Related Bristol plan to redevelop and dramatically upgrade our aging and outdated 50-year-old center has not been advanced to formal hearings before the Planning Commission and this City Council. All 98 leases at our 41-acre center expire in less than 20 months on December 31, 2025. Our center is the Gateway to Santa Ana, and yet if there are no extended leases in place before the end of December next year, the center is at risk of becoming largely vacant. To prevent this, I need to reassure our Tenants they can renew their existing leases this calendar year. But until Related Bristol is approved, we can't move forward on any of this. The uncertainty surrounding the future of the center and therefore the Tenant's own businesses is creating tremendous anxiety and confusion. Some have paused or abandoned plans to expand and enhance their restaurants or businesses. Others are seriously considering closing permanently or relocating and leaving Santa Ana altogether. How do I know this? Because many Tenants, including some that have been here for nearly 25 years, are calling or coming to my office routinely for updates hoping to hear the project is moving forward. Instead, I have to disappoint them, and be the barer of bad news that the project appears stuck in the bureaucratic review process inside City Hall. Page 1 of 2