Industrial Complex Planned for Lake Forest
By DANIEL D. WILLIAMS
Newport Beach-based Turner Development Corp. has closed the door on the 77-acre A.J. West Ranch with the sale of the last 12 acres at the Lake Forest development.
Turner sold the land for $6.8 million to a partnership of Costa Mesa-based Armstrong-Butcher Properties LLC and Irvine-based industrial developer Centra Realty Corp. The companies plan to build 29 industrial buildings ranging from 4,000 to 20,000 square feet.
“It was the last piece of available land to develop in the area,” said Trent Walker, a broker with the Irvine office of Woodland Hills-based Voit Commercial Brokerage.
Walker, along with Voit’s Louis Tomaselli and John Griffin, handled the deal for Turner. Michael Hartel of Irvine office of Los Angeles-based Colliers Seeley International Inc. represented the buyers.
Turner’s buy and sale of the land has been quick by OC standards.
The developer bought the land from the son-in-law and daughter of land baron A. J. West in 1999. At one time, the West family owned 3,000 acres of area land, and the 77-acre Turner property was the last bit to sell. A stone fa & #231;ade with “A.J. West Ranch” etched on it stands as a reminder of what once was.
Nearby, along Bake Parkway, is a sprawl of industrial and office buildings in various stages of development. After Turner bought the property, the company got the land entitled, subdivided it into 14 lots and sold off parcels.
Turner’s initial goal was to put in sewer lines and other basics, sell off a portion of the land and build on the last 12 acres. But developers wound up offering more than Turner expected. So the company sold it all.
There were skeptics. The local real estate market and economy were riding record highs and some experts predicted the market had peaked.
“Some people said we were crazy to buy the property in the first place and set up the plan we did,” said Rusty Turner, the company’s president.
Turner also stood to compete against the 300-acre Bake Ranch property, being developed by Shea Properties, part of Walnut-based J.F. Shea Co.
The former farmland had other obstacles, too,literally.
“We had to take a hill and move it,” Turner said.
The company removed 500,000 cubic yards of soil, some 34,000 truckloads of dirt.
“We also agreed to put in 3,000 feet of road and one million square feet of landscaping,” Turner said.
About 75% of the entire land was sold before Turner completed infrastructure, with the big boost coming when San Diego-based developer Douglas Allred Co. bought nearly 20 acres for a planned $60 million office campus.
Allred was to develop some 350,000 square feet of low-rise space on A.J. West Ranch, but those plans changed when longtime Irvine Spectrum resident Wonderware Corp. agreed to move its headquarters to the Allred Corporate Center in Lake Forest and take more than 100,000 square feet of space.
Other developments in or set for the area include:
n A Staybridge Suites Hotel. Turner sold 2.72 acres to Staybridge, which plans to wait for an economic rebound before moving forward with a 118-room extended stay hotel.
n David Pittman’s Acacia Properties in Newport Beach has developed three office buildings totaling more than 72,000 square feet.
n A partnership of Coastal Investment Properties’ owner Don Schisler and George Hedley, principal of Hedley Construction and Management in Newport Beach, built six office buildings. The $11.4 million project totals 61,700 square feet. Four of the buildings have leased or sold.
