HOT FOOD: Waiter Paul Lopez tends to customers, who have included such Hollywood heavy-hitters as Danny DeVito.
GLORY: Baseball bats of current and former Angels Tim Salmon, Darin Erstad and David Eckstein adorn a wall at The Catch.
PULLING UP STEAKS: The Catch will need to find an new home to make way for condo development.
GO EARLY: The Catch, a popular restaurant near the entrance of Angel Stadium, is packed on game nights.

ANAHEIM – Restaurant owner Joe Manzella has pushed for new homes to be built nearby to provide a stable customer base for The Catch at Angel Stadium’s entrance.

Now, The Catch must shut down for at least a year because condominiums are set to be built on top of the eatery – a landmark for Angel fans and a magnet for celebrities, athletes and political movers and shakers.

The Catch is being forced out by the fast-paced development in the Platinum Triangle, an area around the stadium that the city is turning into Orange County’s future downtown with restaurants, shops and up to 9,500 homes. AMB Property Corp. is requesting to build 509 homes on the 17.6-acre plot that includes The Catch.

The restaurant, bar and banquet facilities, which first opened in 1979, are set to close in 2007. The venue then hopes to relocate at least a year later to an urban development planned across the street on the corner of the stadium lot.

Last month, AMB bought out the remaining 20 years on the restaurant’s lease, which also included control of more than 500 parking spaces on the lot for stadium events. Manzella declined to reveal the buyout amount because of a confidentiality agreement.

“You have to say, I love this place and everything it’s stood for, for (26) years, but there’s a huge benefit of letting it go. You take two steps backward to take 10 forward. You have a better city for it,” Manzella said.

More homes

Louis Tomaselli, senior vice president of Voit Commercial Brokerage who negotiated the lease buyout, said AMB needs the entire plot so it can build as many homes as possible to make money. Five other businesses, whose leases had five to 15 years left, also are taking buyouts. Developers couldn’t work around The Catch because it takes up too much land.

“You devalue the site and you also limit your future potential development,” Tomaselli said.

Manzella bought The Catch in 2001, spending $3.5 million to remodel it with stainless steel, a mahogany bar and molding, and sports art. It reopened in August 2002 just before the Angels’ World Series- winning season.

Actors Danny DeVito and Cuba Gooding Jr. and talkshow host Dr. Phil have dined there. Mighty Ducks and Angels players, as well as Angels owner Arte Moreno, are regulars. Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle eats there at least once a week.

But the restaurant also draws a steady crowd of sports fans and concertgoers. Lines form outside before the Angels or Mighty Ducks play, and it is booked weeks before big-name concerts, such as Paul McCartney at the Arrowhead Pond last week.

Popular spot

Before the Rolling Stones show at Angel Stadium Nov. 4, patrons were turned away hours before the concert. Some said they were upset The Catch was relocating.

Teresa Campbell of Palm Springs called The Catch a landmark because she tells friends to meet there when they go to Angels games two or three times a year.

“Whenever we have something out here, we always come to The Catch,” said Campbell, 49.

But on other nights, business is dead at the restaurant, which is in an industrial complex.

So, Manzella has repeatedly badgered the mayor to approve new homes in the area. He said he wouldn’t have accepted the buyout without a promise that he could move to Lennar Corp.’s A-Town Stadium, where three high-rise towers and a diagonal retail street leading to the stadium’s home-plate entrance are planned. Lennar officials confirmed that they are in talks with The Catch. The project has yet to be approved.

“We wanted to be part of the solution in this town,” Manzella said. “What they are trying to do in this town is what I’ve always wanted them to do.”

Contact the writer: (714) 704-3793 orstully@ocregister.com