La Vida Mineral Springs Property For Sale

The sign has been up for about a couple of months now, but only more recently has information been made available about the offering of the 36-acre La Vida Mineral Springs property on the Brea side of Carbon Canyon.

The property, which is two parcels, has long been owned by Tadayao Hata, a Tokyo businessman who owned a large therapeutic spa in Japan, where volcanic activity provides plenty of hot mineral springs and which has a long cultural tradition of using these for medicinal purposes. 

In the late 1990s, Hata submitted plans for a remaking of the La Vida property, the history of which dates back to the early days of oil prospecting at the nearby Olinda field.  It was said that oil drilling on the site led to the discovery of the springs, though it may be that the indigenous people knew of the existence of the mineral waters long before that.  It was reported that Hata was planning to spend up to $5 million rebuilding the hotel and remaking the spa, which would also include facials, massages and other services.

A circa late 1920s or early 1930s real photo postcard of the La Vida Mineral Springs resort.  Click on any image to see them enlarged in a separate window.  All are from the author's collection.  

In any case, by 1915, a small resort was in operation at La Vida and the enterprise grew in succeeding years, including the erection of cabins, the opening of a cafe, and the building of a hotel, the expansion of the soaking tubs that were the core of the buisness and, finally, the bottling of La Vida Mineral Water with several flavors.

Under the long tenure of one family, the resort stayed open for decades and was sold in 1974 to Leo Hayashi, who sold the site to Hata and was his manager for a period.  As times changed, the canyon being less remote, and then a fire broke out in 1988 that destroyed the hotel, all that was left was what was known as the La Vida Roadhouse, where live music was performed on weekends.  That, too, went away, by the early 2000s.

Hata's first plan for the property did not get beyond the planning stages and the property became weed-infested and overgrown.  The Freeway Complex fire of November 2008 burned nearly all the plant material off and, among other things, exposed the old pink-colored La Vida Mineral Springs tank perched on the side of the hill.

A 1940s color postcard of two gents playing badminton at the resort.

A few years back, my next-door neighbors told me that a Japanese-language newspaper had a report of new plans for a spa at the La Vida site and, not long after that, I spotted some well-dressed men standing next to some nice cars at the location.

Now comes the listing.  Though there is not a sale price shown, there is a well-designed web site by the realty firm, The Kondo Group, with drone video of the property and the tagline "Opportunity Awaits."  After pressing "Read More" and getting a summary of the history of La Vida, a "Read More Here" link takes you to the first post on La Vida from this blog, though a search can be made on the home page for many more posts on the resort and its fascinating history.

A tab marked "Waters" gives a brief description of the therapeutic properties of hot mineral water and a short reference to the bottling of La Vida Mineral Water, accompanied by some photos, including a couple from this blog.

Judging by the cars, this looks to be an early 1960s postcard of La Vida.

The "Opportunities" tab has a few site photos, but, more interestingly, includes images of site and floor plans and drawings of a new resort there.  They include a pair of two-story hotel buildings totaling over 12,000 square feet, the spa building of just under 10,500 square feet, a restaurant of a little below 1,900 square feet, a reception room, an office, and a little more than 150 parking spaces.  All of this looks to be clustered at the west end of the parcel.

The five hotel room plans show spacious, Japanese-style spaces ranging from 360 to 650 square feet and occupancy from two to four persons.  All contain outdoor decks of various sizes and, in keeping with Japanese tradition, they also have a tatami space, which might be seen as an analog to a living room.  Traditionally, these were used in Japanese homes to entertain visitors, serve ceremonial tea, contains a religious altar and, in more modern times, be used for meditation and yoga.  Images show spartan but fine furnishings appropriate to the style.

A "New Building Plan & Image" at the bottom shows a view of what the facility would look like from across Carbon Canyon Road and the effect is a very traditional Japanese arrangement of the clustered buildings a roofed entrance and walls around the compound with landscaping that, of course, would also feature Japanese-inspired plantings and hardscape.

Another Sixties postcard, this one showing one of the pools built on a terraced hillside above the motel.

The tagline in this section is "Dare to Dream" and a link goes to a website showing the City of Brea's zoning code, though there is a Carbon Canyon Specific Plan ordinance, as well.  Regardless of whether the spa that is shown on the website is allowed under these plans and codes, there is the practical considerations of whether such a facility would even have a chance of being successful were it built.

It will certainly be interesting to see what transpires with the La Vida property and, if it is purchased what could be done with it that would meet the criteria of the specific plan and codes and be commercially viable.

To see more of the listing, here is a link to the La Vida web site..