Cutting-edge offices are coming to The Triangle in the latest reinvention of the high-profile Costa Mesa retail spot.
The center, formerly known as Triangle Square, is looking to turn about 27,000 square feet of empty retail space into creative office space, which emphasizes open-air work settings with fewer individual rooms and lots of collaborative space.
The property’s owner, Newport Beach-based Greenlaw Partners, recently began work to convert the two-story space on the eastern edge of The Triangle at Newport Boulevard and 19th Street.
The site previously held a Nike Town retail store but has been vacant since 2005.
The new offices should be ready for occupancy by March, according to brokers with CBRE Group Inc. who are marketing them to prospective tenants.
The goal is to lease out the entire office to a single tenant, although there’s about 5,000 square feet that could be used by another occupant.
The redeveloped site will be roughly equivalent to one floor at one of the area’s high-rise office towers.
The plan is to create an environment that stands far apart from the typical high-rise, said Simon Dillon, first vice president for the Newport Beach office of CBRE.
The office’s interiors will include exposed ceilings, rigid ducting, and concrete floors, while operable windows and roll-up doors will connect the interior space to a private patio.
“It’ll be a lot different than a traditional building,” said Dillon, who is marketing the space along with colleagues Jason Katz and Jeff Pion.
The property is expected to appeal to a variety of entertainment, apparel and technology tenants—including those currently outside Orange County—according to CBRE brokers.
Rent at the offices is expected to be about $3 per square foot on a monthly basis.
The average monthly rent for an office in Costa Mesa is about $2.10 per square foot, according to brokerage data.
Latest Change
The addition of offices is the latest step in the transformation of The Triangle, which runs about 200,000 square feet.
The property, originally envisioned as a traditional mall, opened in 1992 at a cost of $72 million. It has seen its share of tenants, owners, property managers and redevelopment plans come and go over the years.
Alongside Nike Town, other notable anchor tenants that have left the center include Whole Foods Market, Barnes & Noble and Virgin Megastore.
In 2007, the property’s owners proposed eliminating some retail space to make room for a condominium tower. Those plans were scrapped as the residential market crashed and the recent recession took hold.
Greenlaw Partners—an investor in the property since 2006—brought in new capital partners for the center in late 2010.
Renovations
The new ownership group has spent an estimated $25 million over the past two years renovating the center and overseeing a change in leasing plans, which has helped turn The Triangle into one of the area’s livelier restaurant and entertainment centers.
New restaurant additions of late have included Saddle Ranch Chop House, El Corazon and Olive Branch Pizza, joining a 24 Hour Fitness gym that opened at the center in 2012.
Tavern + Bowl, an upscale bowling alley and restaurant, is slated to open early next year, taking over Virgin Megastore’s long-empty location.
The former Nike Town store is the largest remaining empty space at The Triangle, which is now reported to be 86% leased.
Adding offices to The Triangle “will add to the daytime mix,” said Wil Smith, principal at Greenlaw.
Outside of the gym, a bulk of the center sees its busiest traffic at night.
Retail Amenities
The Triangle’s location means the new office project is likely to be among Orange County’s most prominent examples of creative office space.
It’s estimated that more than 250,000 cars drive past the center—located near the end of the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway—every day.
Unique
The project also is unique in terms of redevelopment. A bulk of the creative office redevelopment in OC has taken place at older office and industrial buildings, not retail properties such as The Triangle.
“One of the major aspects of the ‘creative office’ trend that has been missing from Orange County has been the work-live-play lifestyle that is enjoyed in” markets like Santa Monica, said CBRE’s Pion.
The trend of redesigning buildings to meet the demands of creative users has become relatively common in tech- and media-heavy markets such as Silicon Valley, San Francisco and Santa Monica, as well as parts of the Westside in Los Angeles.
The trend has had limited traction in OC, mostly confined to a few design, architecture and action-sports companies.
