Construction company Hensel Phelps has been selected to build a student housing project for freshmen at the University of California-Irvine.
The Mesa Court expansion project will consists of three five-story residence halls.
The 250,000-square-foot project has an estimated $92 million price tag. It will house 780 dorm rooms expected to accommodate triple occupancy—serving about 2,500 students.
UC Irvine records show Hensel Phelps beating out two competing bids closer to $98 million. The project originally was expected to cost about $120 million before being scaled back.
Development work will begin in July with the demolition of existing structures, and new construction should start by October.
Hensel Phelps, whose Southern California office is in Irvine, is partnering with San Francisco-based architect Mithun on the project.
The buildings will have various features, including study rooms, kitchenettes, computer labs and laundry facilities, in addition to housing.
The project will also have “a cutting edge dining facility” with multiple food venues, food preparation classes, and a coffeehouse, according to Hensel Phelps, which has worked on other UCI projects.
UCI’s long-range development plan calls for on-campus housing for half of its students. Existing housing falls short of that goal by more than 1,100 beds, with the most urgent need being for more housing to accommodate incoming freshmen, according to school documents.
SJC Sale
Westcore Executive Center, a 115,517-square-foot office campus in San Juan Capistrano that’s one of the newer office developments in South Orange County, is up for sale.
The two-building complex, which caters to smaller tenants, was recently listed for sale unpriced. It’s expected to generate offers of about $25 million, according to market watchers.
The Irvine office of Cushman & Wakefield Inc. has the listing for the property, which overlooks the San Diego (I-5) Freeway near the entrance to the San Joaquin Hills (73) Toll Road.
San Diego-based real estate investor Westcore Properties bought the property in 2010 for nearly $17 million when it was about 40% full. The center opened in 2007 and was originally known as Mammoth Professional Office Park. Its original owners turned over the property to lenders in the last recession.
The property, at 29122 and 29222 Rancho Viejo Road, is 85% leased to 72 tenants, according to Cushman & Wakefield, whose Jeffrey Cole, Jeff Chiate, Ed Hernandez and John Gallivan are marketing the property.
Greenlaw Growth
Newport Beach-based Greenlaw Partners has bought a 10-building industrial park in Anaheim.
The real estate owner and developer recently closed on the purchase of Tri-Freeway Business Park, a nearly 210,000-square-foot industrial park near the intersection of the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway and Brookhurst Street.
The buildings sold for about $21.4 million, or about $102 per square foot. An affiliate of RREEF America LLC was the seller. CoStar Group Inc. data put the deal’s capitalization rate at 7.3%.
The property was approximately 90% leased at the time of sale, according to Anthony DeLorenzo, vice president for the Newport Beach office of CBRE Group Inc. who worked on the deal with colleagues Gary Stache and Pat Scruggs.
Greenlaw, the real estate owner whose best-known local property is the Triangle shopping center in Costa Mesa, owns a few other industrial parks in Anaheim, as well as some offices properties.
The new owners saw their latest purchase as a value-add investment, according to DeLorenzo, whose team also recently brokered the $10.5 million sale of the three-building Alicia Office Park in Laguna Hills.
Newport Beach-based Davenport Partners bought the 86,360-square-foot complex at the intersection of the 5 Freeway and Alicia Parkway. The seller was an undisclosed institutional investor and local operator.
The two-story buildings together were 61% leased at the time of sale, but occupancy is expected to fall to 35% this summer after a large tenant leaves.
Davenport’s plan is to invest a modest amount of capital into the buildings and lease them up to current market levels, the company said.
Nearly $2.5 million was set aside for future tenant improvements, leasing commissions, and capital expenditures as part of a $10 million loan used to finance the purchase, according to CBRE, which helped arrange the loan.
