Grand openings for ground-up office, industrial and shopping-center projects remained in scarce supply in Orange County last year.
The county’s largest office, industrial, retail and hotel developers finished just 251,000 square feet of new projects here last year, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
That’s easily the lowest level of commercial development ever on our annual list and continues a three-year stretch in which less than 1 million square feet of new commercial buildings completed work in each of those years.
Last year’s list showed 720,000 square feet of projects finishing up work in 2010, while in 2009 about 520,000 square feet of development work here was reported.
Nearly 7.8 million square feet of projects around the county finished up work at the peak of the most recent commercial real estate boom in 2007.
A total 20 developers reported completing projects here that were larger than 40,000 square feet in 2007.
Top Spot
Only one company finished a project of that size in this week’s list: Anaheim-based Extron Electronics Inc., which built an office for its own use.
Extron, a maker of electronics for video display systems, took the top spot in this week’s list for finishing up work for its new headquarters at the northwest corner of Ball Road and East Street. The six-story, nearly 200,000-square-foot office, which was built by Pasadena-based construction company C.W. Driver, also includes a 9,000-square-foot steakhouse and a country music theater.
The Extron development represented the bulk of commercial development, with only three other sizable developments reported as completed here last year. This year’s list was compiled from brokerage data, individual submissions and Business Journal records.
Beyond the four projects that finished up work in 2011, other companies on this year’s list were ranked by square footage under construction at year’s end.
The 15 companies on this week’s list are estimated to have about 2.5 million square feet of projects currently under development, and could add close to another million square feet of additional projects by year’s end if a few planned projects break ground.
In Works
Notable projects under way include a 380,000-square-foot high-rise of-fice tower in Newport Center that’s being built for investment manager Pacific Investment Management Co. That building, being built by Newport Beach-based Irvine Company, is expected to finish up work late next year.
Hyundai America Motor Inc. also has begun work for a nearly 470,000-square-foot office at the site of its former headquarters in Fountain Valley. That estimated $150 million project also isn’t slated to end until late 2013.
As in the case of Extron, the Hyundai and Pimco offices are being built with tenants already lined up to occupy the entire buildings. There hasn’t been an Orange County office larger than 100,000 square feet to break ground without a specific tenant in mind in nearly five years.
Speculative development also has been a rarity among industrial projects in recent years, though more of that type of product appears to be moving ahead across the county (see story, page 28).
Among hotels, Irvine-based R.D. Olson Development earlier this year opened up a nearly 90,000-square-foot Residence Inn by Marriott whose completion will be reflected in next year’s list. And the active company has several other projects in the works, including a pair of hotels along the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway in Tustin.
Among proposed retail developments, large-scale projects such as Huntington Beach’s massive Pacific City remain in limbo amid economic uncertainties and new ownership groups.
The largest retail-related projects in the area now primarily involve redevelopment work at existing sites, such as at South Coast Collection and Triangle shopping centers in Costa Mesa, or the conversion of one-time big-box stores into new uses, such as upscale gyms.
Redevelopment projects of that type aren’t included in this week’s list.
Apartment Town
Certain types of projects not represented in this week’s list well exceeded, on a square-footage basis, development totals of what was included.
Apartment development—a red-hot business segment in OC right now—is not represented in the list. Close to 5,000 apartments are going up or have recently completed work in Irvine alone, and large multifamily complexes have been proposed or broken ground in several other cities.
Also not included are hospital, educational and government facilities, which also remain among the biggest sources of local construction jobs right now.
Walt Disney Co.’s $1.1 billion renovation of its Disney California Adventure theme park—which looks to be wrapping up in the next few months—also isn’t included.
Download the 2012 OC’s LARGEST COMMERCIAL DEVELOPERS list (pdf)
