Spectrum Group Real Estate, an Irvine-based real estate investment and development management firm whose execs have connections to the University of Southern California, is planning to build a sizeable mixed-use property not far from the school’s campus south of downtown Los Angeles.
The company has begun early-stage planning work to convert a nearly 3.3-acre site near Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum into a six-story project called The Fig.
Early renderings show the podium-style project would feature a few hundred hotel rooms and student housing units, among other uses.
The project would go up at 3900 S. Figueroa St. just off the Harbor (110) Freeway and near a planned new Exposition Park-area pro soccer stadium valued at $250 million.
The site currently holds a surface parking lot and a collection of older apartment buildings that would make way for the project, according to Urbanize LA, which first reported the proposed development.
Spectrum Group is headed by Scott Gale, a former vice president of land acquisition at Walnut-based Shea Homes. He holds an MBA from USC.
Other top officials at the real estate company include executive director John David Booty, a former USC quarterback who started in two Rose Bowl victories and played in the NFL.
The company also has portfolio properties in Costa Mesa, Oregon and Coachella, according to its website.
Mission Viejo Momentum
Bixby Land Co. said it’s getting good leasing activity at a Mission Viejo building it’s renovating into a creative-office property in the months leading up to its completion.
The Newport Beach-based company, one of the area’s main creative-office developers, has a 71,421-square-foot office project under way at 27401 Los Altos, a few blocks from the Shops at Mission Viejo and Kaleidoscope malls.
Bixby bought the four-story office in December for a reported $15.6 million. The office, just off Crown Valley Parkway, previously was called Mission Heritage; Bixby has named it Cerro.
The redevelopment, which will include a new entry, lobby, common areas, outdoor patio, landscaping, and move-in-ready office suites, is scheduled to be complete this summer, though Bixby officials said they’ve already boosted occupancy since the start of the year from 59% to 72%.
New tenants include Realty One Group and Everest Escrow, which are leasing a combined 8,857 square feet.
IA Interior Architects designed the property renovations, and CBRE Group Inc. is handling leasing.
Strategy Shift
Santa Ana-based retail developer Red Mountain Group Inc. has targeted the Los Angeles County city of Glendale for a pair of sites as it plans more urban infill redevelopment projects.
The company last month purchased 240 N. Brand Blvd., a 63,000-square-foot building in downtown Glendale at the intersection of Brand Boulevard and California Avenue.
The site, which holds a 24 Hour Fitness gym and other retail space, is close to the popular Porto’s Bakery and Cafe location in that city.
Red Mountain said it’s “considering all possibilities to redevelop” the site and another Glendale property it has in escrow that’s closer to Rick Caruso’s Americana at Brand shopping center, which is about half a mile from the recently acquired property.
Potential options include multistory office buildings with ground retail or a mixed-use property featuring a hotel and homes, the company said.
Terms of the Brand Boulevard purchase weren’t disclosed. Red Mountain said the transaction was part of a series of acquisitions and dispositions involving four properties that closed on one day last month and were valued at more than $47.2 million.
The flurry of deals also involved the sale of a 123,390-square-foot retail center in Citrus Heights and the acquisition of smaller properties in Memphis, Tenn., and a restaurant site in Phoenix.
Red Mountain said the latest deals are part of its strategy “to replace assets in the competitive grocery-anchored segment with urban infill redevelopment opportunities.”
Its current portfolio now includes 87 shopping centers totaling about 4 million square feet that the company values at more than $850 million.
Close to a dozen of its properties are in Orange County, including sites in Costa Mesa, Lake Forest, Garden Grove and Santa Ana.
