After Setbacks, Straders Vow to Push Projects
By DANIEL D. WILLIAMS
Tim Strader Sr. and Jr. have taken hits of late, but the father-son developers say they aren’t giving up on plans for two big projects: Koll Center Newport and Campus Centre in Irvine.
The Straders’ Irvine-based Starpointe Ventures has been hit with a double-whammy this year. On Nov. 20, Newport Beach voters rejected a proposed 10-story office building at Koll Center Newport.
The election defeat,the first test of the city’s so-called Greenlight initiative,came after the financial backer for Starpointe Venture’s proposed Campus Centre in Irvine got cold feet and pulled out of that project.
The Straders said they’re not giving up on Koll Center Newport. An environmental study of a revised version of the project,one that further reduces the impact on traffic,is in the works, they said.
The goal: revamping the project with an eye toward getting voters to sign off on it.
“We’re looking at possibilities of redesigning the project to reduce the impact,” Tim Strader Sr. said. “There are only two places where you can build this,Newport Center and the airport area.”
Despite the Greenlight initiative, the Straders said they aren’t ready to take their plans to another city.
“Development hurdles seem to be getting harder across the board,” Strader Sr. said. “Newport Beach is at the forefront,they’re the most extreme. But they’re not alone.”
Starpointe Ventures is in talks with its Koll Center Newport partner, Aetna Inc., about possible scenarios for the project, the Straders said. The city of Newport Beach also is undertaking a general plan update, they said, starting with a “visionary meeting” in January.
“We will participate in the process,” Strader Sr. said.
Back in 1972, Strader Sr. partnered with Don Koll to design and develop the 100-acre Koll Center Newport at Jamboree Road and MacArthur Boulevard. Today, the site counts 13 buildings and nearly 1.2 million square feet of office space. Chipmaker Conexant Systems Inc. is the main occupant.
In 1997, Koll and the Straders set out to add a 10-story, 237,500-square-foot office building to the center. After getting entitlement clearance for the new building, Newport Beach voters in 2000 passed the Greenlight initiative, which requires that any proposed development in the city exceeding the general plan by more than 40,000 square feet be put to voters.
Strader Sr. calls the initiative “ballot box” planning. The project plans were good enough to pass muster with the Planning Commission and City Council, which reviewed a phone book-thick detailed description of the project, he said. He contends that residents unfamiliar with development issues were scared off by the “T” word: traffic.
The election reduced the project to a smattering of sound bites, Strader Sr. said. Of the 10,000 or so voters who weighed in on the project, 60% were convinced it would cause massive traffic congestion, he contended.
A city-approved study showed that 270 daily trips would be generated by the project, Strader Sr. said.
Of those commuters, only 10% would travel within Newport Beach, he said. The other 90% would head off toward other parts of Orange County, according to Strader Sr.
By comparison, the Straders said they have had an easier time getting the greenlight on their Campus Centre project in Irvine.
“The nice thing about Irvine is once you have city approval, you’re entitled,” Strader Jr. said. “There’s no vote by the citizens”
The 27-acre, mixed-use Campus Centre received a quick go-ahead, according to the Straders. The project’s first phase calls for two five-story office buildings totaling 265,000 square feet and a 1,000-vehicle parking lot.
But the duo hit a different snag when their undisclosed financial backer surveyed the slowing economy and pulled out of Campus Centre earlier this year.
“We’re getting close to bringing in a new financial partner and by this summer,” Strader Jr. said. “All of the interior roads, grading, and infrastructure will be complete.”
Meanwhile, Irvine-based Sares-Regis Group is pushing ahead with construction on the 535-unit Watermarke apartment complex at the Campus Centre site.
