The exterior portion of a $1 billion revamp of the more than 30-year-old Honda Center broke ground Thursday, March 26, with city and community leaders donning orange vests and wielding shovels to celebrate.
The project will include a new entrance to the city-owned arena — construction that might be hard to distinguish from the new 100-acre OCVibe entertainment and residential district quickly rising around it — and an interior refresh that is already underway.
People representing OCVIBE, the City of Anaheim, and other VIPs join the owners of the Anaheim Ducks, Henry and Susan Samueli, center, in tossing a shovelful of dirt during the groundbreaking ceremony for the OCVIBE South Plaza and Honda Center South Entrance project at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Anaheim Ducks owners, Henry and Susan Samueli speak during the groundbreaking ceremony for the OCVIBE South Plaza and Honda Center South Entrance project at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Susan Samueli, right, gives a thumbs up after her and husband Henry, left, tossed a shovelful of dirt during the groundbreaking ceremony for the OCVIBE South Plaza and Honda Center South Entrance project at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken poses for a photo with a backdrop of a rendering of the OCVIBE South Plaza and Honda Center South Entrance during its groundbreaking ceremony at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Anaheim Ducks owners, Henry and Susan Samueli, at podium, speak during the groundbreaking ceremony for the OCVIBE South Plaza and Honda Center South Entrance project at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
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People representing OCVIBE, the City of Anaheim, and other VIPs join the owners of the Anaheim Ducks, Henry and Susan Samueli, center, in tossing a shovelful of dirt during the groundbreaking ceremony for the OCVIBE South Plaza and Honda Center South Entrance project at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Dubbed Honda Center Encore and privately funded, the project promises to bring a “dramatically elevated” fan experience, said Henry Samueli, whose family owns the Anaheim Ducks and is the developer behind OCVibe.
“As we know, the Honda Center has been such an important part of this community for decades,” Samueli said, “so by making this investment into not only the arena, but the surrounding real estate, we’re creating a downtown here that will last another 50 to 100 years.”
Building in the parking lots and properties around Honda Center, OCVibe will bring dozens of restaurants, new performance venues, outdoor spaces, hundreds of apartments and a hotel in what its developers are promising to become a downtown for Orange County.
As part of Honda Center’s makeover, a new glass structure with a large digital display and escalators will be built at the arena’s south entrance. That structure will give the venue an additional 20,000 square feet, “which fans can use during intermissions and between concerts and shows,” said Bill Foltz, CEO of OCVibe, adding the project is working toward a 2027 completion, in time for the Olympics.
Inside the arena, crews are working on redesigned food and beverage stations, seating and new amenities, including renovations to all existing luxury suites, new opera box suites on the Plaza Level and a new, all-inclusive club on the east end of the Columbia Bank Club Level, along with updates to the existing Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 Club.
Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken, who joked she was at Thursday’s groundbreaking in her capacity as both mayor and a loyal Ducks fan, called the project a “once-in-a-generation investment” for the city.
“I’m very excited that the playoffs are right in our sights,” Aitken said. “And to see our hometown ice going under this kind of transformation is definitely gonna be worthy of our championship team.”
The West Entrance and South Entrance of Honda Center are currently closed. Visitors are using Honda Center’s North and East Entrances during construction, and parking is in the “Cerritos Garage C” off Douglass Road and the southern “Katella Garage K” off Katella Avenue.