Redhill Tech Center Sold; the Million-Dollar Debate
CB Richard Ellis Services Inc. is relocating some 300 accountants, asset managers and technology workers from Newport Beach to Irvine, near John Wayne Airport.
The move is designed to give workers at Orange County’s largest commercial brokerage more room and to boost efficiency, according to John Weiner, a senior vice president with CB Richard Ellis.
Despite a sharp downturn in sales, Newport Beach-based chip maker Conexant Systems Inc. plans to take up the space in the West Tower at 5000 Birch St. that CB is vacating, Weiner said. Conexant already is in the building next door to its wafer fabrication plant.
CB is moving to 4400 MacArthur Blvd. Weiner said the lease at Birch Street was coming due, and the firm’s support staff are scattered throughout the tower.
In Irvine, CB plans to occupy the fourth, fifth and sixths floors of the nine-story building. In all, the firm is taking up 71,884 square feet.
“This should allow them the ability to accommodate more people,” Weiner said.
The five-year deal is estimated at $10 million. The support staff is set to take up residence next March.
Whitley Collins of CB Richard Ellis’ Los Angeles office represented his firm. Weiner represented the building owner, Aetna/Koll Center Newport.
COMMERCIAL
Resource Commercial Real Estate Inc., with offices in Irvine and San Francisco, is a new company,sort of.
Formed in 1996 by two former brokers with CB Richard Ellis, Resource Commercial remained a partnership until about six months ago when it added the “Inc.” to its name. Before that, the company was a two-man shop with an eye on national deals.
Dave Howard, managing partner, bought out the other original partner, added a staff and the satellite office in San Francisco. The increase in personnel allows Resource Commercial to be more of a full-service brokerage firm, he says.
The moves mark a change in the company’s direction. Tenant representation still is the focus. But the company says its new mission is more local than national.
“We’ll still do national work, but we want more of a focus on OC and our clients in San Francisco,” said Mike Sanders, a senior associate with the company.
The company recently represented Rapid Conn, a Singapore computer parts company. A maker of connection parts for computers, Rapid Conn moved into a 16,000-square-foot building in Lake Forest early last month.
RESIDENTIAL
Some stories just won’t go away. I wrote an article last month about luxury homes and received more feedback from it than all the other stories I’ve written combined.
When it comes to pricey houses, it seems everyone has an opinion. Brokers called. So did an attorney and a professor from a local university. The phone calls were so numerous that when I visited the dentist, I half expected him to throw down his two cents about million-dollar homes.
Two responses caught my attention. One was from high-end broker William “Bill” Cote, who consistently sells the most expensive homes in Orange County. Cote sold the 14,000-square-foot abode at 18 Harbor Island for more than $14 million and has sold homes to The Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren and best-selling author Joseph Wambaugh, among others.
Cote said the high-end market still has legs, if you know what you’re doing. Although the dot-com fallout has some scared, Cote said he has four listings at $10 million-plus and expects to move them.
But the largest, most resounding thud occurred when a book-length document arrived over the transom from Competitive Analytics LLC. The Newport Beach-based company sent reams of charts and graphs that tracked OC home sales by month, starting in March 1997.
According to the report, the housing market is strong and will only get stronger, especially at the high end.
“Other analysts and the media have been stressing the net decrease in the trailing 12-month total. But what is not emphasized or noticed is that this decrease has been almost entirely due to the significant decrease in the number of homes selling below $300,000 due to lack of inventory. Sales above that level continue to rise,” said David Scott Savlowitz, chief executive and chief economist with Competitive Analytics.
Made in the Shade
Irvine-based Taylor Woodrow Homes Inc. has taken advantage of the energy crisis by joining forces with the city of Irvine in efforts to design energy-efficient homes. In a new development, OC’s 16th largest homebuilder plans to develop homes in the Shady Canyon area, while meeting new energy standards established by Irvine.
To combat the California’s energy problems, the city established Irvine Quality Plus, or IQ+, a volunteer program designed to curb energy use.
The program seeks to cut energy consumption three ways,design, materials and installation.
The Villas at Shady Canyon will begin at approximately $1.5 million. Construction on the homes will begin this month, with the first models ready by late summer.
