62.4 F
Laguna Hills
Monday, Mar 18, 2024
-Advertisement-

County Picks Master Developer for Land Near Great Park

Lowe Enterprises beat out five other prospective candidates for the role of master developer for a 100-acre parcel of largely vacant land at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Irvine that the County of Orange wants to turn into a mixed-use project.

The Board of Supervisors last week chose the Los Angeles-based real estate development and management company to provide entitlement, development and property management services for the site, which runs just east of the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway, next to the Orange County Great Park.

The county-owned land—one of the larger OC land parcels to go on the market in the past few years—has the potential for a variety of retail, hotel, office, apartment and other uses.

Lowe Enterprises topped five other bidders seeking the role of primary contractor for the project. It is said to be in the process of negotiating the details of the scope of work as well as a contract.

Projects

The company said it has about $1 billion of projects under development, including a 900,000-square-foot county operations center in San Diego, and a transit-oriented mixed-use development in Culver City.

Local projects the company has helped develop include the 454,000-square-foot Irvine Spectrum office campus of Verizon Wireless, and the 1.7-million-square-foot Brea Marketplace mixed-use development.

Aliso Viejo-based Shea Properties was the runner-up in the selection process. It was named the alternate for the project in case Lowe Enterprises fails to reach a final agreement with the county.

Other prospective candidates included Irvine-based SunCal Cos., the Majestic Realty Co. in City of Industry, Newport Beach-based Sage Community Group Inc., and the team overseeing work at the nearby Great Park Neighborhoods development project, according to county records.

The 100-acre site is near the southwest edge of the 1,300-acre OC Great Park site, adjacent to the Irvine Metrolink train station. It’s also a short distance from the Eastern (133) Toll Road and Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway.

The county was given ownership of its 100-acre parcel as part of the 2003 annexation of the former Marine base by the city of Irvine.

The land now holds five vacant and obsolete warehouses, which would be torn down to make way for new construction.

The mixed-use project proposed for the land is not directly affiliated with the 3,700-acre Great Park Neighborhoods development project, which is being overseen by Aliso Viejo-based FivePoint Communities Management Inc.

Great Park Neighborhoods, which broke ground earlier this year, calls for some 5,000 homes and 1.2 million square feet of commercial space in its first phase.

Development for some of the adjacent land owned by the county could begin next year, although a timeline on a bulk of the site’s construction depends on what uses are chosen for the land.

Another factor is the pace of infrastructure work in and around the Great Park, which would share some roads—including a reworked Marine Way—with a mixed-use development on the site.

The county has decided to maintain an ownership stake in its land, and will be setting up a long-term ground lease for the site, which could add some complexity to any potential deals.

Plans for about 17 acres of the 100-acre site appear to be set.

The Wild Rivers Waterpark expects to relocate from the Irvine Spectrum to the land.

Lease

The Board of Supervisors is expected to approve moving forward on a 25-year lease with Wild Rivers during a meeting slated to be held this week, according to county documents.

The lease would have a minimum annual rent of $500,000 at the start of the lease, which would rise to $1.5 million over the course of the lease, according to documents.

The new waterpark could open by the spring of 2014. An official for Wild Rivers said earlier this year that $30 million could be spent on building out the new location.

Developers could expect to see about $9 million in annual rents from tenants at a mix-used project, assuming it is built out to its “highest and best use,” according to documents prepared for the county by the public institution practice of Chicago-based brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle, which advised the county on the land.

Want more from the best local business newspaper in the country?

Sign-up for our FREE Daily eNews update to get the latest Orange County news delivered right to your inbox!

Mark Mueller
Mark Mueller
Mark is the Editor-in-Chief of the Orange County Business Journal, one of the premier regional business newspapers in the country. He’s the fifth person to hold the editor’s position in the paper’s long history. He oversees a staff of about 15 people. The OCBJ is considered a must-read for area business executives. The print edition of the paper is the primary source of local news for most of the Business Journal’s subscribers, which includes most of OC’s major corporate and community players. Mark’s been with the paper since 2005, and long served as the real estate reporter for the paper, breaking hundreds of commercial and residential real estate stories. He took on the editor’s position in 2018.
-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-