RESIDENTIAL
Irvine Company is pulling out all the stops to lease up its new apartment complex in Costa Mesa.
The Newport Beach-based developer has started advertising up to six weeks free rent on TV commercials for The Enclave, an 890-unit complex that opened last year next to Costa Mesa’s arts district.
The ads were being shown last week during broadcasting of the NBA playoffs.
Irvine Co. says the offer is for Enclave renters who sign leases of at least 14 months. Monthly rents at the complex start at about $1,500.
That appears to be the largest discount Irvine Co. is offering for its local apartment units, according to listings on its Web site.
Similar discounts are becoming the norm for new complexes that have opened up in Orange County of late.
In Irvine, Aliso Viejo-based Shea Properties, part of Walnut-based J.F. Shea Co., is listing offers of one month free rent for its 177-unit Calypso Apartments and Lofts project, at the corner of Jamboree Road and Alton Parkway. The complex opened last year.
In Anaheim, Colorado developer Archstone is advertising up to two months free rent for its 884-unit Archstone Gateway complex in the Platinum Triangle, which opened late last year.
Along with rising concessions, OC apartment landlords cut their average monthly rental prices 2% last year to about $1,500,the area’s first annual decline in 13 years,and rents could fall another 1% this year due to ample supply, according to the University of Southern California’s Casden Real Estate Economics forecast.
Job Insurance
Brea’s Shea Homes, also part of J.F. Shea, is rolling out a program for potential homebuyers in OC who are worried about losing their jobs.
The builder,OC’s second-largest homebuilder last year in terms of sales,recently announced a job protection plan that will guarantee mortgage payments for up to six months in the event of a new homeowner’s involuntary job loss.
The plan’s insured through Lydon Southern Insurance Co. and is available locally at Shea’s eight projects in La Habra and Aliso Viejo.
Shea’s program echoes a similar job protection plan rolled out in March by Irvine-based Western National Property Management for tenants at its apartment complexes that lose their jobs, not to mention January’s heavily advertised job assurance plan announced by Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America for out-of-luck car buyers.
COMMERCIAL
Irvine-based Masimo Corp. is on the clock.
The medical device maker leases about 120,400 square feet of space in two adjacent Irvine buildings near the former El Toro Marine base. Both leases,which the company has the right to renew,are set to expire in the next year.
Whether it decides to stay remains to be seen. Masimo, a maker of patient monitoring devices and supplies that went public in 2007, has been exploring a potential move to another Irvine location, according to brokers.
Earlier this year, the company was said to be considering buying a Myford Road building being shopped by Irvine-based manufacturer Printronix Inc. for $40 million or more.
Masimo was under contract to buy the property earlier this year but opted not close on the deal, according to sources.
Printronix said earlier this year that it planned to shutter its manufacturing operations in OC but keep its headquarters here. The company, which makes industrial printers and printing supplies, is looking to sell a 46,000-square-foot factory and part or all of its office complex, which together total 187,000 square feet.
Other buyers have since inquired about buying part of the Printronix property.
Masimo’s two local buildings hold its corporate headquarters and product manufacturing, research and development, warehousing and distribution operations.
The lease for its main, 70,200-square-foot building expires in October. It has the option to renew at the property for another five years, the company said.
The second building, a 50,200-square-foot building that is used for office space and research and development, has a lease that expires next March.
Fight Night
On May 14 commercial real estate practitioners who feel like they’ve been battered in a 12-round boxing match during the past year can watch some professional fighters feel the pain instead.
The National Association of Industrial and Office Properties is hosting its 20th annual Night at the Fights gala at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine. The gala features live boxing and it’s typically the local real estate industry’s most popular networking event. This year’s boxing slate includes two state title fights among the three match-ups.
Tickets are going for $600 per person and $6,000 for a table of 10.
