Bosa Passes Critical Hurdle With Early High-Rise Sales
By MATHEW PADILLA
People are buying into high-rise living in Orange County, literally, according to Vancouver, British Columbia’s Bosa Development Corp.
More than 100 people have signed sales contracts for condominiums at twin 18-story towers in Irvine being built by Bosa, the company said.
Natale “Nat” Bosa, who heads the company, said another 30 people have reserved units and should be signing contracts soon. That brings the total sold to more than half of the 232 planned condos.
“I think what’s happening is the more sales we get, people are starting to get more comfortable with the condominium concept,” Bosa said.
Early sales have allowed Bosa Devel- opment to secure more than $100 million in construction loans from Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp. and Toronto’s Bank of Nova Scotia, Bosa said.
The loan pledges clear a big hurdle for Bosa, who earlier said he would have to sell at least half the condos to get financing.
The two banks likely will seek other lenders to come up with $100 million in financing, Bosa said. Bosa himself has said he plans to fund about 20% of the project.
“There could be as many as five or six lenders in that project,” Bosa said. “We already have our commitment, so it’s up to the banks to farm some of it out.”
Marketing of the condos, known as Marquee at Park Place, started in July. Excavation and other early work is under way at the site. Buyers are expected to move in by late 2005.
Bosa, an Italian immigrant to Canada, has built high-rises in Vancouver and down the road in San Diego. He uses a combination of concrete and steel that costs much more than wood framing typically seen in many of OC’s luxury apartments and low-rise condos.
By comparison, Walnut-based J.F. Shea Co. needed only $80 million to put up 792 high-end apartments in Aliso Viejo at its City Lights project, according to sources. That works out to $100,000 per unit versus Bosa’s $430,000.
With prices from $525,000 to $1.5 million, who is buying at Bosa’s high-rise? Some of the early buyers are investors who don’t plan to occupy the condos themselves, according to one real estate source.
Typical buyers of high-rise condos are older couples whose children have left home, according to Walter Hahn, a real estate economist with the Irvine office of Ernst & Young. They need less space and don’t care for yard work, he said.
A second set of buyers are young professionals, either married without children or single, who like to be near restaurants and shops and don’t care for the hassles of owning a traditional home, according to Hahn.
Bosa’s project stands to be the first luxury high-rises in the county. Other real estate developers are closely watching the project with an eye toward doing their own high-rises, sources said.
Marquee at Park Place began taking contracts in September, Bosa said. He said he thought sales would slow down amid the holidays but didn’t.
Ernst & Young’s Hahn said the Bosa project seems to be well designed and is brand new, so it is sure to attract some buyers.
The developer “has nailed the people who really like this product,” Hahn said. “The real question is after you skim those off, how long will it take to sell the rest, when you really have to start selling.”
Bosa said he’s already looking at another Park Place parcel for a potential high-rise or two. He said he’s also scouting other Orange County sites.
What about Newport Beach?
“You can’t build anything in Newport Beach,” Bosa said.
