Now we know where Mark McGwire will be spending his retirement.
Big Mac has closed escrow on a lot at Shady Canyon, The Irvine Company’s toney masterplanned community.
Irvine Co. officials declined to comment, but sources said McGwire’s lot sits on a bluff within Shady Canyon’s first phase with a view of the first hole on the Tom Fazio-designed golf course.
McGwire, who has long had an Orange County residence, bought a lot that, from an aerial map, resembles a baseball diamond. A green construction fence around the property last week added to the symbolism.
Details on the McGwire property are slim. What is known is that the first phase of custom lots includes 27,000-square-foot building pads that sell for between $550,000 and $2.5 million.
The McGwire lot is the latest news at Shady Canyon. The project has been 10 years in the making and is a move by the Irvine Co. to bring some of the glitz of Newport Coast to southern Irvine.
This summer, Costa Mesa-based Fari International sold an 11,000-square-foot house planned on two Shady Canyon lots for $10 million,a record for Irvine.
By January, the Shady Canyon Golf Course and a swimming and fitness center are set to be ready. The first homes are expected to be occupied by February.
Some 24 under-construction homes went on sale last month. Marketed by invitation only, the Irvine Co. said it received more than 40 applications, more than it had expected.
“We had to have an opportunity drawing,” said Tom Heggi, vice president of land development for Irvine Community Development Co., an Irvine Co. unit.
About half of the 107 lots in the first phase half been made available with the rest set to be released in groups of 11 to 20 at a time, officials said. The second phase is set to add another 53 custom lots. The rest of Shady Canyon won’t be graded for several years yet, according to Heggi.
“It’s all dependent on the market,” he said.
Initially, the city of Irvine’s plan for Shady Canyon called for 3,320 homes crammed into 1,070 acres. Those plans have since changed, allowing for more open space and natural habitat. Plans now earmark 800 acres of protected space on the site’s perimeter and 175 acres of open space within the community.
Irvine has zoned the area for a maximum of 400 homes. Of that, there stands to be about 350 custom homes and 24 semi-custom villas designed by Irvine-based Taylor Woodrow Homes Inc.
An additional 22 lots were snatched up by “guest builders”,Fari; Brookfield Custom Homes; Dugally Oberfeld LLC; Glass Construction Corp.; Los Trancos Development Inc.; Monarch Estates; Pacific Design Estates Construction Inc.; and Warmington Custom Homes.
The homes created by the guest builders are expected to reflect the golden age of California residential design of the 1920s and 1930s, according to David Ko, Shady Canyon project architect.
“We chose architectural styles known for their informal, rural character,” Ko said.
The Irvine Co. said it plans to limit membership to the Shady Canyon country club to 400 members, with residents getting first crack. Initiation fees for country club membership are $165,000 for residents and $190,000 for non-residents. n
