Luxury Apartments Going Up in Fullerton
Two More Serrano Heights Tracts Open; Airport Area Sales Reported
REAL ESTATE
by Daniel D. Williams
RESIDENTIAL
Initial work is under way on a luxury apartment and retail complex in downtown Fullerton, one of two projects planned for the North County city.
The Orange County office of The Morgan Group Inc. has broken ground on the 183-unit City Pointe Apartments near Harbor Boulevard and Chapman Avenue. The project is a venture of Houston-based Morgan Group and Hartford, Conn.-based Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers Inc. with lending from Mellon Bank.
The project was pushed through by the Fullerton Redevelopment Agency.
“It has been a long-term goal of ours to have this project in this location, and we’re extremely happy it has all come together,” said Terry Galvin, redevelopment operations manager for the city.
Last week, workers were clearing trees, moving dirt and taking other initial steps to make way for the apartments and shops.
The City Pointe project sits on 2 acres that formerly served as a city parking lot, the loss of which was an issue for the project. A 413-space parking garage is set to be built on the site, according to Louis Kuntz, a Morgan development partner.
“The number of city parking spaces will increase from 123 to 190 spaces to help alleviate some of the pressure on downtown parking,” Kuntz said.
The project is being designed by Orange-based Architects Orange. City Pointe’s plans call for one- and two-bedroom units ranging from 669 to 1,152 square feet with four floor plans. The project is in the heart of the city’s once-rundown downtown, which now is home to funky stores and trendy restaurants.
“Our goal is to create an urban population base for downtown’s commercial renaissance, including 1,600 square feet of our own ground-level retail space,” Kuntz said.
In another project, San Francisco-based BRE Properties Inc. plans to build 192 luxury apartments a stone’s throw away at Lemon Street and Commonwealth Avenue. The project, known as Pinnacle at Fullerton, calls for 9,000 square feet of retail and a parking garage. The apartments, which are being built on a lot that’s been empty for months, are set to be available in 2004. At about $35 million each, “These projects, beginning within days of each other, each would represent the largest private investment ever made in downtown Fullerton,” said Gary Chalupsky, executive director of the city’s redevelopment agency.
Serrano Heights Update
Plans are moving ahead at the masterplanned community of Serrano Heights near Orange. Anaheim-based developer SunCal Cos. has opened two more neighborhoods,Ashbury Ridge and Cambridge Place. Both are being built by the Irvine office of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Pulte Homes Corp.
Homes at Ashbury Ridge are 1,757 to 2,374 square feet with prices starting from the low-$400,000s. Cambridge Place homes are 2,182 to 2,916 square feet with prices starting from the mid-$400,000s.
Set to debut this summer is Arlington, Texas-based D.R. Horton Inc.’s The Crest with homes ranging from 2,646 to 3,397 square feet and starting in the $400,000s.
COMMERCIAL
The retail sector remains lively in the otherwise slumping Southland commercial market. Colonies Crossroads, a 110-acre retail project in Upland, has preleased space for a Target, Kohl’s and Chick’s Sporting Goods.
The project, a venture of Pacific Development Group of Newport Beach and Colonies Crossroads Inc. of Rancho Cucamonga, is set to start construction in October with an opening slated for summer 2003.
The Ontario office of CB Richard Ellis Services Inc. is the marketing and leasing agent for the project, which is part of The Colonies at San Antonio, a 434-acre masterplanned community with 1,100 single-family homes, 60 acres of open space and more than a million square feet of commercial and retail space.
Airport Area Activity
While the OC office market is nursing a hangover, there’s been a pickup in activity in the John Wayne Airport area, according to one real estate insider.
According to Tim Good of the Orange County office of Charles Dunn Real Estate Services Inc., activity has picked up around the airport in the past four months.
Five office buildings have sold recently with another in escrow, Good said. The class A and B buildings range in size from 87,000 to 267,000 square feet. The completed deals and pending sale total 929,000 square feet and more than $200 million, according to Good.
Prices have varied, ranging from $150 to $250 per square foot, he said.
According to Good, North and South County haven’t been as quick to follow suit with no significant office sales in the north and just one,a 98,600-square-foot facility,in the south.
Long Beach Buy
A venture of Phoenix-based Ensemble Investments LLC and AEW Partners IV LP bought the 550,000-square-foot, 27-story World Trade Center building and 393-room Hilton in Long Beach for an undisclosed amount. The properties were bought from CDI West, an affiliate of Kajima USA. The acquisition adds to Ensemble’s Long Beach holdings. It also counts two office towers, the 200,000-square-foot California Bank & Trust building and the 125,000-square-foot 110 Pine Ave. tower. Ensemble also bought seven acres of land next to the properties from the Port of Long Beach. Tenants at the World Trade Center include Citibank, Charles Schwab & Co., Ernst & Young and the U.S. General Services Administration. The tower is 85% occupied.
