Santa Ana, with a population of 327,780 and a total area of 27.2 square miles, is the county seat of Orange County. It is located just in the center of Orange County by the Santa Ana River. It is presently the government and financial centre of the county, but it competes with Irvine for the lead in commercial development.
Downtown revival is amongst the main objectives of Santa Ana. The California State Fullerton's Grand Centre Art Center is based downtown. The city has created the Santa Ana Artists Village, that houses the Bower's Museum and Old County Courthouse Likewise located downtown are several theaters, art galleries, the Ronald Regan Federal Building and Courthouse and the Santa Ana Civic Center.
The downtown of the city of Santa Ana is a great mix between commercial and residential communities. In the area, there are a lot of historic homes which date back to the late 1800's. The city is taking good care so as to maintain the cities historic monuments while the downtown area develops.
Santa Ana's economy is based largely dependent on technology. The city is in a great position to guide the rest of California into the information age. Santa Ana ranks third within California for the amount of office space available downtown, coming in behind San Fransisco and Los Angeles. They ranked 13th for the biggest number of businesses established and have the fourteenth biggest consumer market within the nation.
Originally the economy within Santa Ana was dominated by agricultural businesses. Then again, aerospace trades (notably Northrop and Huges) became prominent right after the end of WWII. Once the University of California was built in Irvine in the mid sixties, science based businesses developed and prospered. Santa Ana is considered Southern California's top high-tech area. Among the "Fast Fifty" businesses, Santa Ana has twenty one of them established in the city limits.
The city strongly encourages small businesses, that is amongst the reasons the city's financial system is really strong. Almost a quarter of these smaller businesses are minority owned. Due to the cities strong economic base, it can outperform numerous other cities within California during hard economic times.
Some fashion businesses were established within the County of Orange, consisting of Gotcha, St. John Dritts and Roxy.