CONSTRUCTION BEGINS ON ANAHEIM MUSIC COMPLEX

Construction has started on Freedman Forum, a 2,300-seat theater-in-the-round complex for musicals and big-name acts in downtown Anaheim. Current projections call for completion by fall.

Approval of final plans by the Anaheim City Council this week cleared the way for construction on the $6-million project at Broadway and Philadelphia Street near the Anaheim Civic Center.

Although the city is not directly involved in building or financing the project, the City Council--acting as the Redevelopment Agency--has jurisdiction over design and uses.

Developer-owner Leo Freedman of Los Angeles said he expects to use the four-story facility for cable television ventures, as well as major musicals and “Vegas-type acts.”

Freedman, a longtime developer in Anaheim’s Harbor Boulevard tourist corridor, built the Grand Hotel and the Melodyland theater-in-the-round across from Disneyland.