High-rise condominium plans in Costa Mesa’s ritzy restaurant, shopping and arts center are coming back down to earth.
A 4.8-acre development site on Anton Boulevard once slated for a two-building condo project whose towers would have run 26 and 16 stories each is being reworked into a midrise apartment project.
Symphony Towers is the second of five Costa Mesa sites within walking distance of South Coast Plaza and was approved in 2007 for high-rise, for-sale residences that have since been scaled back and are now expected to be midrise apartments.
Plans for the latest redesigned project, Symphony Apartments, call for a pair of upscale six-story apartment buildings totaling 393 units. That’s a reduction in residences for the project, in addition to a reduction in height. When the site was envisioned for condo towers, 484 residences were planned under the Symphony Towers name.
A time frame hasn’t been disclosed for construction at Symphony Apartments, which is slated for land currently holding a pair of empty restaurant buildings and a parking lot next to the three-building MetroCenter office complex and a 24 Hour Fitness gym.
Costa Mesa’s planning commission took up plans for the apartment complex last week, and the City Council is scheduled to consider the project in mid-November.
The project site is at the intersection of Anton Boulevard and Avenue of the Arts on land owned by Santa Ana-based Sakioka Co., a longtime area landowner.
Developers, Others on Project
San Francisco-based Wilson Meany is heading up the development. Driver Urban in Irvine is listed in city filings as the project’s contractor, and Irvine-based KTGY Group Inc. as the architect.
The change from high-rise to rentals “reflects current realities” of diminished demand for high-rise condo properties, said Alan Hyden, a development executive with Wilson Meany.
The developer, in addition to getting the site re-entitled for the midrise project, has also asked the city for a two-year extension of its development rights for the high-rises, in case market conditions change again.
The probabilities of building a high-rise “are small, but we want to keep those options open,” Hyden said at last week’s planning commission meeting.
Plans call for Symphony Apartments to hold 154 two-bedroom units and 239 one-bedroom units. Apartments would range from 750 to 1,392 square feet.
The 491,331-square-foot development would include about 17,500 square feet of amenity space for residences.
The project would “provide a high quality residential development within an office complex and walking distance to retail and job opportunities,” according to city planning officials.
It’s designed to appeal to “renters by choice,” meaning those who can afford to own their own homes but would rather not, according to representatives of the developer.
The developer estimated that monthly rents will be $2.75 to $3 per square foot. That would put larger units’ rents at close to $4,000 a month.
The altered home plans echo a similar change in direction for a proposed project on the opposite side of Anton Boulevard at the current site of the Lakes Pavilions retail center.
Developers originally planned a pair of 25-story condo towers under the name Californian at Town Center. Foster City-based Legacy Partners filed plans with the city last year to instead build a five-story upscale rental homes project at the site.
The plan is to break ground on the midrise by next summer, according to Tim O’Brien, senior managing director for Legacy Partners.
The currently unnamed project will cost a projected $100 million to build, he said last week.
High-Rise Projects
Costa Mesa approved five high-rise projects in the city’s arts district, including
Symphony Towers and the Californian, in 2007.
Other high-rise projects approved at the time include sites at Newport Beach-based Irvine Company’s Pacific Arts Plaza office complex; a site near the intersection of Bristol Street and Sunflower Avenue owned by the Segerstrom family that could also hold an upscale hotel; and land that’s also slated to be the future location of the Orange County Museum of Art.
The city approved a sixth high-rise development in 2008 that would have expanded the Wyndham Orange County and added condos on the site.
Together, the sites had the potential to hold nine towers and about 1,400 condos.
The subsequent recession quickly put plans on hold, and to date there’s been no significant residential construction at any of the sites.
Irvine Co. has been investing money in its office properties at Pacific Arts Plaza, which it acquired in late 2010, and is not believed to be proceeding with residential plans anytime soon.
The owners of the Wyndham Orange County are expected to propose changes to their own high-rise entitlements in the next several months, city planning officials said last week.
