Costa Mesa is seeing a second notable residential development that is geared toward older adults move ahead.
Azulón at Mesa Verde, a 215-unit apartment complex for adults who are 55 and older, recently broke ground. Plans call for the development to be completed by the end of next year.
The four-story complex is being built on an unused 7.6-acre portion of a 21-acre commercial site near the intersection of Harbor Boulevard and Mesa Verde Drive, a few blocks from Orange Coast College.
M.V. Partners of Costa Mesa is building the project, which will be managed by Foster City-based Legacy Partners Residential.
C.J. Segerstrom & Sons owns the land. The Costa Mesa-based developer of South Coast Plaza and numerous other area properties had spent several years getting the site re-entitled for residential construction.
Henry Segerstrom and Sandy Segerstrom were among those attending a groundbreaking ceremony for the project earlier this month.
Azulón will include 132 one-bedroom units running about 800 square feet, and 83 two-bedroom units averaging about 1,100-square-feet.
The community—along with upscale appliances and features in the apartments themselves—will include a clubhouse with a movie theater, a demonstration kitchen and library, saltwater pool and spa, and a fitness center and yoga room.
Azulón follows a similar project that broke ground several months ago: Vivante on the Coast, a 185-unit retirement community that’s going up on Monrovia Avenue in Costa Mesa, about one mile from Hoag Hospital.
Santa Ana-based developer Nexus Cos. is building the high-end Vivante project.
Santa Clara Lease
Dell Inc. has struck its second notable deal with an Orange County-based company in the past month, this time for a real estate transaction.
The Round Rock, Texas-based computer giant, which last month announced a $2.4 billion deal to buy Aliso Viejo-based Quest Software Inc., reportedly just inked a 150,000-square-foot lease for an under-construction building in the Silicon Valley.
Dell’s new landlord: Newport Beach-based Irvine Co., which is building the first phase of its Santa Clara Gateway office complex, a 41-acre development that’s expected to total 911,000 square feet when it is built out.
Dell is said to have leased one of three five-story buildings, totaling 447,000 square feet, which are going up in the first phase of the development now under construction, according to sources. News of the lease was first reported in the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Dell counts about 1,500 employees in the Silicon Valley. Another 240,000-square-foot project it occupies nearby is said to be near capacity.
Apartment Restart
Bernards, a Los Angeles-based commercial builder, is ramping up work at a long-delayed residential project near John Wayne Airport in Irvine.
The company said it was awarded the construction contract for Carlyle at Colton Plaza, a 156-unit apartment project at 2201 Martin Court. The site is located a few blocks from the headquarters of Allergan Inc., near Von Karman Avenue.
The project was previously envisioned as condo units, but the project’s initial developer, a unit of Los Angeles-based KB Home, saw its lender foreclose on the partially built project a few years ago.
The homebuilder—before abandoning the project when the financial market shutdown began in 2008—had completed construction to the podium level, including a two-level, concrete parking garage with 387 spaces, according to Bernards.
New Pacific Realty Corp., a Beverly Hills-based real estate investment and development firm that focuses on value-add opportunities, acquired the project in 2009 from the lender.
The plan now is to get the project completed as an apartment development by next summer, according to New Pacific.
The project will include two- and three-bedroom units ranging in size from 1,240 square feet to 1,580 square feet.
Del Mar Buy
Costa Mesa shopping-center-owner Donahue Schriber has bought a grocery-anchored property near its flagship retail center in San Diego County’s Carmel Valley.
The company recently closed on its buy of the Del Mar Heights Village Center, a shopping center that totals 107,846 square feet. Terms of the sale, which had been in the works for a few months, were not disclosed.
The property is a few blocks away from Donahue Schriber’s Del Mar Highlands Town Center, a 273,298-square-foot center that it built in 1989 and which recently underwent a $20 million renovation. That property is valued at close to $200 million.
Donahue Schriber said it has bought three grocery-anchored shopping centers in the last two months, two in San Diego County and another in Washington.
