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Tower Plan Adds to Downtown Design for Irvine Spectrum

The Irvine Spectrum is expected to see construction of its first new office tower in seven years begin later this year, adding to an already heavy dose of new development in the immediate area.

Newport Beach-based Irvine Company has filed plans with the city to build a 20-story, 450,000-square-foot office at 8055 Irvine Center Drive, near the western edge of the Spectrum shopping center.

The new office tower would easily be the largest tower built in the Irvine Spectrum, and it would also be the eighth largest office in Orange County, according to brokerage data.

Other towers at the Spectrum top out at 15 stories.

The Spectrum has seen its share of other development of late, with apartments, homes, shops and a hotel either going up or in the works for land surrounding the namesake shopping center, which itself is getting a heavy dose of redevelopment and new construction.

Newport Center

It’s a strategy similar to what Irvine Co. has under way in Newport Center, where a recently completed City Hall is being joined by new apartments, restaurants and offices in the area surrounding its increasingly upscale Fashion Island shopping center.

“As a long-term planner and master builder, the Irvine Co. continues to invest in the Irvine Spectrum as a premier workplace community with expanded shopping and dining, apartments, hotels, transportation and recreation,” Doug Holte, president of Irvine Co.’s office division, said in a statement. “We are seeing strong demand from employers for a downtown setting that aligns with their business goals by supporting the recruitment and retention of the best talent.”

The site of the planned development is between the Spectrum shopping center and The Village apartment complex. The land is currently used for parking for other offices along Irvine Center Drive.

Planning Commission, Construction

The development, which is expected to include a five-story, 1,465-space parking garage, is scheduled to be taken up by the city of Irvine’s planning commission in June.

Construction could commence around the end of summer, assuming the project gets the city’s approval and Irvine Co. executives decide the timing is right to proceed with a speculative office development in the area.

Full Towers

Numerous local real estate watchers expect Irvine Co. to pull the trigger on the development, which would likely open in 2016 if plans move ahead as expected.

The developer—Orange County’s dominant landlord—owns four other office towers in the Spectrum area that total about 1.3 million square feet. Those buildings are more than 95% leased on a cumulative basis, according to brokerage data.

The entire office market around the Spectrum, which totals nearly 10 million square feet, had a vacancy rate of about 8% at the end of the first quarter—well below the countywide vacancy rate of 13%, according to data from the Irvine office of brokerage Voit Real Estate Services.

The new tower would be the first built in the Spectrum since 2007, when Irvine Co. wrapped up work on its 20 and 40 Pacifica offices. Those two buildings are 15 stories each and total about 630,000 square feet combined.

Irvine Co. is the largest office owner in California, with a nearly 500-building portfolio. It also has been one of the state’s most active office developers over the past two years, adding properties in a number of its markets.

La Jolla, Silicon Valley

A pair of office towers in Newport Center have gone up over the past two years, and the company recently began work for a 15-story tower in La Jolla. It also has several midrise office campuses in various stages of development in Silicon Valley.

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Mark Mueller
Mark Mueller
Mark is the Editor-in-Chief of the Orange County Business Journal, one of the premier regional business newspapers in the country. He’s the fifth person to hold the editor’s position in the paper’s long history. He oversees a staff of about 15 people. The OCBJ is considered a must-read for area business executives. The print edition of the paper is the primary source of local news for most of the Business Journal’s subscribers, which includes most of OC’s major corporate and community players. Mark’s been with the paper since 2005, and long served as the real estate reporter for the paper, breaking hundreds of commercial and residential real estate stories. He took on the editor’s position in 2018.
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