FivePoint Communities Inc., the real estate firm overseeing development of the former El Toro Marine base in Irvine, has disclosed plans to build some of the city’s smallest and likely most affordable homes in years.
Last week the Aliso Viejo-based master developer, which is also working on large projects in Los Angeles County and the Bay Area, brought revised plans for a 723-unit housing development on the western edge of Great Park Neighborhoods to Irvine’s planning commission.
The proposal for the roughly 55-acre site, whose working name is District 1-West, would include two apartment projects for older residents totaling 187 units and 536 “market rate” condominiums, some under 700 square feet.
New and existing homes under 1,000 square feet are rare in Orange County’s fastest-growing city. There were just seven, all resale offerings, of that size as of last week, according to data of online residential brokerage Redfin.com.
The homes are priced from about $300,000 to nearly $540,000.
On the other end of the size and pricing spectrum, there are 18 homes for sale in Irvine for more than $5 million, including six, among them a few larger than 12,000 square feet, at more than $10 million, according to Redfin.
Later This Year?
The Business Journal reported last month that FivePoint planned to add more affordable units to Great Park Neighborhoods, where homes now routinely sell for $1 million or more, though details hadn’t been disclosed.
Documents related to last week’s planning commission hearing show it’s proposing eight attached condominium product types at District 1-West “ranging in size from 654 square feet to 2,357 square feet; and varying from one to four bedrooms.”
The smallest units would be part of a 55-unit project and feature “Mid-Century Modern and Abstract Traditional architectural styles.”
A few other product types would be as small as 1,204 square feet, and a majority of the product types would max out at 2,000 to 2,200 square feet.
Pricing hasn’t been announced, nor has a sales timeline.
FivePoint Chief Executive Emile Haddad said during his company’s latest quarterly call with analysts in late March that he planned “to have additional residential land sales in 2018” at the company’s Irvine developments.
It recently opened its first model homes and kicked off presales for its fourth community at the former marine base: Cadence Park, a 1,007-home mix of stand-alone homes and attached units being worked on by eight different homebuilders.
Homes there start at about $650,000 for some smaller units of about 1,650 square feet. Offerings in the 3,000 square foot range start at nearly $1.4 million.
The project follows Parasol Park, a 727-home collection largely consisting of attached townhomes. It opened last year and is already more than 90% sold.
“What we’ve done at the Great Park, you will see that we have a very diversified product offering,” Haddad said.
In addition to providing a wide range in size of homes, the company looks to offer “the lifestyle around it that people would like to be living within.”
In terms of the homes at District 1-West, city planners said in filings that they believe the project’s location next to the Eastern Transportation Corridor (133) Toll Road, “will continue to foster interaction among Great Park Neighborhood residents.”
In addition, residents of the forthcoming development will benefit from being near new schools, open space, a variety of recreational opportunities and public transportation, according to the FivePoint documents.
The site’s also near a mixed-use development FivePoint plans on its land near the intersection of Ridge Valley Road and Great Park Boulevard in Irvine.
“This development is anticipated to include housing, commercial, retail, and office uses,” the documents note.
Affordable Apartments
District 1-West is one of two larger-scale developments in the planning phase in Irvine that are aimed at providing more affordable housing.
Last year, Newport Beach-based Irvine Co. disclosed early-stage plans to turn vacant land it owns on the edge of the Irvine Spectrum near the intersection of the Santa Ana (5) Freeway and Sand Canyon Avenue into a 1,710-unit apartment complex geared for middle-income earners.
The project requires city approval of general plan and zoning changes, and entitlement appears likely to remain on hold until a proposed city slow-growth initiative is resolved.
