The county has so much demand from residents getting official documents or wanting to tie the knot it needs to move its north Orange County satellite office into a bigger space.
The move will take the Orange County Clerk-Recorder branch out of downtown Fullerton and move it to 222 S. Harbor Blvd., in Anaheim.
The new location will open in February, hopefully before Valentine’s Day, one of the office’s busiest days of the year, Clerk-Recorder Hugh Nguyen said. Until then, the Fullerton branch will remain in operation.
The Fullerton office has been open since February 2009, offering civil marriage ceremonies and document services such as property records and birth certificates. Along with the main office in Santa Ana, there are also branches in Laguna Hills and Westminster, though they don’t all offer the same services.
Nguyen said the department looked at more than 40 places for a new location, including exploring buying a building in Fullerton.
“After looking in Fullerton and other locations like Brea, we were lucky to find this location in Anaheim,” Nguyen said.
The office will be doubling in space with the new location, while only paying about $1,000 a month more in rent, he said. That will enable the department to offer passport services and expand document recording services.
“Every day people were asking if we do passports,” he said. “Now we do.”
There will also be a second marriage ceremony room and more free parking spaces, Nguyen said. But he doesn’t expect to hire more than one or two more workers for the new office, not until he sees how much demand it will get.
Mario Marovic, owner of the Matador Cantina in downtown Fullerton, said the satellite office has been a legitimate draw for his restaurant, which are less than a block apart.
His restaurant has been offering a marriage package for newlyweds who come over after their ceremony and at least once a month its banquet room hosts a large wedding party, he said.
The county branch gave people a chance to visit downtown Fullerton for the first time, and keep them coming back, he said. “It’s going to be a loss for downtown Fullerton. The OC Clerk-Recorder is something that helped create more of a vibrant downtown.”
