Shea Completes Office Building; OC Pair Write Book on Construction Defects
California’s energy problems now are world famous. But electricity is not the only utility-delivered basic facing supply-demand imbalance and rising costs. Santa Ana-based National Water & Power Inc. has focused its attention on saving apartment owners from the cost of providing water.
Formed in 1995 to take advantage of deregulation of the utility industry, NWP installs meters in individual apartments then tracks water use through a radio technology similar to that of home security systems, according to Bill Griffin, a company vice president and general counsel.
Over the past five years, the service has gained importance in the apartment and multi-family housing market. Before submetering, apartment owners typically rolled water bills into the rent. If a tenant used a lot of water, accruing large charges, the property owner still footed the bill. Submetering shifts the burden to the tenant.
Studies show that consumption is reduced when the burden is placed on the user, according to Jim Thomas, president of the multi-family property management division of the Irvine-based Sares-Regis Group.
An independent study conducted for the National Apartment Association and the National Multi Housing Council, revealed that tenants of submetered properties used 18% to 39% less water than did their unmetered counterparts.
“Submetering is the wave of the future,” said Robert Fincher, executive vice president of sales and marketing for NWP. “It has become a particularly cost-effective tool in regions such as Southern California, where increasingly high property prices make it very difficult for multifamily developers to recover costs and offer affordable housing.”
An average multifamily property has 285 units, according to Fincher, with the average water bill running $24 to $30 per unit per month.
“If the tenant pays his or her own water bill, that can be a savings of anywhere from about $6,840 to $8,550 per month for the owner. If an owner has 10 properties, that is a very significant savings,” Fincher said.
NWP has either submetering or radio utility billing system contracts for more than 400,000 apartment units in 32 states and the company expects to provide the same service with electricity billing as the power industry continues deregulating.
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South County projects continue moving along. Aliso Viejo-based Shea Properties recently finished construction on Ocean Village II, a three-story, 45,000-square-foot office building.
The project already has its first tenants. First First Team/First Estates real estate will occupy 7,000 square feet, while another 17,500 square feet is already leased by a 24-Hour Fitness Sports Club. Irvine-based Snyder Langston built the facility while Laguna Beach’s Stearn Architecture handled the design.
Other businesses in the 27-acre Ocean Ranch Village area include an Edwards Cinema multiplex, medical and commercial office space and a Trader Joe’s.
Olson Readies Two Hotel Projects
Irvine-based R.D. Olson Construction will begin construction on two hotel resorts in San Diego. The two hotels,The Homewood Suites and Hilton Garden Inn,total 148,000 square feet, with construction costs set at $13.2 million.
Construction is slated to begin in September, with a completion date of May 2002.
“These hotels will cater to guests of a newly constructed nearby business park,” said Denis Reyling, president of R.D. Olson Construction.
Deals:
A & R; Wholesale Distributors Inc., will relocate its corporate headquarters and warehouse-and-distribution operation to a 43,488-square-foot industrial building in Anaheim. The food-distribution company, which is relocating from Fountain Valley, signed a five-year, $1.5 million lease.
Jeff Read, senior vice president with Grubb & Ellis’ Anaheim office represented the landlord, Stammer Family Trust of Irvine. Jeff Mitchell of Voit Commercial represented A & R; Wholesale.
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Tom and Rachel Miller, a father-daughter writing duo, have penned a consumer-oriented book on construction defects. The authors are well versed on the matter. Tom Miller, an attorney, represented the developer in the first case that applied the strict liability standard to homebuilding in California. Rachel Miller is a founding member of the California Association of Community Managers.
Their book, “Home and Condo Defects: A Consumer Guide to Faulty Construction,” comes in the wake of last fall’s California Supreme Court ruling on the matter.
According to a spokesperson for the authors, the book “gives homeowners a nuts-and-bolts strategy for recognizing costly and potentially dangerous construction defects and then guides them step-by-step through the process of seeking resolution.”
The book has not gone unnoticed: it has won the endorsement of California Attorney General Bill Lockyer.
