The city of Irvine remains the hub of homebuilding in Orange County through development of Great Park Neighborhoods and the Irvine Ranch, but an even faster construction push in the multifamily sector over the past decade has given rental units majority status in OC’s fastest-growing city, according to new brokerage data.
Of the nearly 94,000 housing units in Irvine, 54% are multifamily units or rented single-family homes, according to a July report from the local office of JLL.
Owner-occupied units now make up 44.8% of the city’s housing stock, and the remaining 4.8% are empty, the brokerage’s data shows.
That’s a switch from 2000, when owner-occupied units made up 56.8% of Irvine’s 56,000 housing units, JLL said. Rental units made up just 36.8% in 2000.
Irvine “has transformed from an owner-occupied-dominant city to one where the majority of housing units are occupied by renters,” said JLL in its report.
That’s due in large part to the development of the Irvine Business Complex into a center of apartment development over the past decade, with more than 8,000 units already built, thousands more on the way, and large rental communities built in the Spectrum area by Newport Beach-based Irvine Company.
Irvine’s population has increased 65% over the past 16 years from 145,921 to 241,102. The population is forecasted to grow to 259,176 by 2021, but the mix of renters and homeowners should stay largely the same as it is now, according to JLL’s data.
Phoenix Push
Add TRI Pointe Group Inc. to the list of local real estate companies that have recently put money into the Phoenix market.
Maracay Homes, a unit of the Irvine-based homebuilder, announced last month it closed on the buy of a two-parcel, $31 million land purchase at The Meadows, a master-planned community in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria.
The acquisition, combined with another $17 million land purchase Maracay made last year, represents the largest homebuilder transaction in Peoria since the recession, according to the builder.
The latest purchase is for 142 acres that will hold 299 homes, adding to the 173-home site that the builder acquired in last year’s deal.
“We are optimistic about continuing to grow our business in both the Phoenix and Tucson markets and are doing a great job filling our land pipeline,” Tri Pointe Chief Executive Doug Bauer told analysts last month after the company’s latest earnings report.
Tri Pointe now owns nearly 2,700 lots in the Phoenix and Tempe markets, where it’s sold 235 homes through the first six months of the year, according to its latest quarterly report.
Aliso Viejo-based New Home Co. is another builder that has been growing its Phoenix-area operations of late. Irvine-based Koll Co., BKM Capital Partners and LBA Realty, in addition to Newport Beach-based CT Realty Investors, also have made recent notable deals in the region’s office and industrial markets.
Back to School
Chapman University bought a pair of offices in the Irvine Spectrum next to its new Harry and Diane Rinker Health Science Campus.
The school paid a combined $13.5 million for the two-story 1 Hughes and 3 Hughes offices about a mile north of the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway that total some 64,000 square feet.
The buildings back up to two offices on Jeronimo Road that hold Chapman’s new health science campus, which opened in late 2014. The school paid a reported $20 million for those facilities, which combine for about 166,000 square feet.
The Irvine campus holds Chapman graduate programs, including those for pharmacy, physical therapy and physician assistant.
Chapman bought the buildings from the founders of Irvine-based planning and engineering firm Hunsaker & Associates.
Zuvich Corporate Advisors Inc. represented the sellers in the deal, and CBRE Group Inc. represented the school.
