Santa Ana-based Nexus Co. is getting back into development with plans for a hotel project near its headquarters and housing elsewhere.
The company’s breaking ground on a 155-room Courtyard Marriott at the Hutton Centre office and apartment complex abutting the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway in Santa Ana.
The four-story hotel will total about 90,000 square feet and should be completed within a year, according to Cory Alder, Nexus’ president.
San Marcos-based Lusardi Construction Co. is handling construction of the hotel, which is being built near the intersection of MacArthur Boulevard and South Main Street.
Nexus recently got a loan from Bank of America Corp. for about $20 million to help finance the project, Alder said.
“We’re happy to be developing something again,” he said.
The company’s spent the past few years riding out the down real estate market by focusing on getting entitlements for its land, doing general contracting work and taking on more asset and property management business.
The Marriott project is believed to be the only significant new hotel going up in Orange County.
A long list of proposed local hotel projects have been scrapped or put on hold during the past few years, as the downturn’s brought OC’s occupancy rate down to about 74%, according to Los Angeles-based PKF Consulting Corp., a hotel brokerage and consulting firm.
That figure’s up from the low of the recent market, when occupancy rates hit 69% in 2009. Lower prices and a lack of construction have boosted occupancy rates since then, according to PKF’s most recent data.
Nexus is not new to the hotel business. The company has developed more than 1,000 hotel rooms in the past, according to its website.
The Courtyard Marriott is expected to largely cater to business travelers, according to Alder.
It’ll be across the street from another hotel: the Doubletree Hotel Santa Ana/Orange County Airport.
Skyline
The hotel’s being built on land originally earmarked for a third high-rise condominium tower as part of Nexus’ Skyline at MacArthur Place.
That development has twin 25-story condominiums, which were built near the peak of the market.
As the housing market deteriorated, sales were put on hold and the largely completed project was mothballed for more than a year.
Earlier this year, Palo Alto-based Essex Property Trust Inc., an apartment developer and owner, acquired the towers and is in the midst of leasing up the units.
Nexus is looking to repurpose another condo project it was working on in Santa Ana.
The company’s lining up funding for an assisted living project at 1640 Monrovia Ave. The Costa Mesa senior housing project could see some construction by the end of the year.
The developer initially planned a $45 million mixed-use project called Westside Lofts at the Costa Mesa property. The site previously was an Eaton Corp. aerospace plant and is surrounded by a number of other industrial buildings.
Nexus also is putting up homes in Palm Springs, one of its biggest markets outside OC.
