LBA Realty Inc. has disclosed more details, plus early-stage renderings, of the mixed-use campus it’s targeting for a 9.4-acre site at the intersection of Jamboree Road and Michelson Drive in Irvine.
The Irvine-based developer last month filed additional plans for the proposed 422,930-square-foot project, which would be built kitty-corner from LBA’s 105-acre Park Place campus just off the San Diego (I-405) Freeway.
Plans call for two five-story offices totaling 236,550 square feet as the largest part of the development, according to city filings.
Also proposed are a six-story, 150-room hotel totaling about 86,000 square feet, a movie theater of close to 50,000 square feet, and a little more than 51,000 square feet of retail.
A timeframe for the project’s proposed groundbreaking hadn’t been disclosed. The development would likely be built “over a period of years,” according to Tim Strader Jr., president of Irvine-based Starpointe Ventures, an entitlement consultant working with LBA on its plans.
Excess development rights already approved for sprawling Park Place would be transferred to the nearby site at 2722 Michelson Drive, Strader told Irvine’s city council during a late February hearing on the project.
LBA wants to enter into a negotiating agreement with the city to clarify some terms of the proposed plan—which previously was to be part of Hines Interest LP’s 15.6-acre California Green office development—and to get new entitlements that would last for 25 years.
LBA bought the property—previously a St. John Knits International Inc. manufacturing and office site and now used by apparel maker Obey Clothing—in 2014 for an undisclosed price. The land had been foreclosed upon by its prior owners following the last recession.
Irvine City Council late last month refrained from entering into negotiations with LBA over the new development agreement but will likely take up the issue once again after a citywide traffic study is completed in April.
LBA plans to proceed with entitlement work for the project in the meantime.
The intersection of Jamboree and Michelson, about a mile from John Wayne Airport, is the busiest intersection in Irvine for car traffic, according to the latest city records.
Another new retail project could move ahead at the intersection in the next few years on the opposite side of Michelson Drive at homebuilder Lennar Corp.’s Central Park West project.
The Miami-based builder has been working with the city to iron out plans for a retail project at the site, where groundwork is taking place for additional homes. A grocery store and residential-focused amenities are being considered.
LBA’s proposed development is just down the street from Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co.’s own 545,000-square-foot Boardwalk office project.
The Dallas-based developer’s speculative office project, featuring a pair of nine-story buildings connected on alternating floors with indoor bridges and outdoor walkways, is now in the early stages of construction.
Boardwalk is the largest speculative office project now under way in Orange County.
