- Irvine Ranch became the country’s largest source of new-home sales; Great Park Neighborhoods, Rancho Mission Viejo and Lake Forest’s Baker Ranch were also among the 25-best-selling communities in the U.S.; and average new-home prices in Orange County veered closer to $1 million.
- Irvine Co. leasing success with its two new office towers and midrise projects in the Irvine Spectrum led to plans for another 1 million square feet of projects for 2018 construction, and gave credence to the developer’s vision of the area as OC’s new downtown.
- The city of Irvine and Irvine Co.’s Donald Bren made a very public pitch to land Amazon’s second headquarters and its projected 50,000 new jobs. Santa Ana developer Mike Harrah is also in the mix, as is Huntington Beach and more than 200 other municipalities vying in the sweepstakes for one of the country’s largest office tenants.
4 Irvine-based Standard Pacific survived the recession, barely, and kept its West Coast headquarters here after its 2015 merger with Ryland, forming CalAtlantic Homes. But Lennar Corp.’s $9.3 billion acquisition of the builder, announced in October, spells CalAtlantic’s end as a stand-alone company. The good news: OC is likely to remain a hub of operations for Lennar, which is soon to be the country’s largest builder.
- The area around John Wayne Airport got its first new office project in years with Trammell Crow’s Boardwalk and has more offices and hotels being proposed for the region. But with cap limits on apartment development in the area nearly reached, questions were raised about how much more construction the area can hold in the near-term.
Honorable Mentions
• Irvine was the center of OC’s development world this year; our top stories listing doesn’t even have space for the largest office deal ever announced here: FivePoint Communities Inc.’s $443 million buy-back of Broadcom Ltd.’s new campus in the city. Other areas of OC kept busy this year, too. Lido Village in Newport Beach is in full redevelopment mode with new stores and a boutique hotel being added, for example. Buena Park, Westminster, Santa Ana and a number of other cities have big revitalization projects under way or planned. The market has embraced most of the area’s new commercial and residential projects, but with the current real estate cycle likely to slow at some point in the next few years, questions remain about how well the area and the real estate community are prepared for the next downturn.
n Not everyone is on board with the growth. A luxe condo tower plan in Newport Center was thwarted by residents, and a Banning Ranch proposal in Newport Beach went on life support after locals’ pushback. Citizens are now pushing a slow-growth measure in Irvine along the lines of a Costa Mesa ordinance passed last year.
Next Week
CalAtlantic won’t be the only large OC-based homebuilder that gets acquired in 2018.
— Mark Mueller
