Chino Hills Buildings Planned by Developer
By JOSEPH ASCENZI
A San Juan Capistrano company is developing three office buildings and a medical building in Chino Hills.
Spring Pacific Properties LLC plans to build the Chino Hills Business Park on 15 acres near the Chino Valley (71) Freeway northeast of Yorba Linda, according to Jeff Collier, director of Chino Hills planning.
Plans call for two-story buildings of 38,000 square feet. The buildings are set to be built in two phases, with groundbreaking on the first phase slated for Aug. 1, according to Taylor Ing, a senior vice president with CB Richard Ellis Inc.
No leases have been signed for the business park.
“Serious negotiations” are under way with two prospective tenants, Ing said.
The first phase calls for a medical building and one office building. The second phase is set to include two more office buildings that are expected to break ground during the first quarter.
Each phase is set to take about eight months to complete, Ing said.
Spring Pacific Partners Managing Director Bill Griffith could not be reached for comment.
The space likely will lease for about $2 a square foot. Tenants in the medical building are set to pay for management of the facility. The arrangement is typical for medical buildings, which operate 24 hours a day and are expensive to maintain, Ing said.
Like Corona, Chino Hills can attract workers who live in Orange County, making the city a good place for office development, the city’s Collier said.
“The opportunity here is huge because we’re getting so much residential growth,” Collier said.
Chino Hills, which was incorporated in 1991, is an affluent city nestled at the edge of Orange, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
“The income level among people who live in Chino Hills is growing, and you have a lot of people who would like to work closer to home,” CB’s Ing said. “As an office market, Chino Hills isn’t on its way. It’s already arrived.”
Chino Hills Business Park is set to be the second speculative office project in the city after the Chino Hills Professional Plaza that opened in 2002.
The two 20,000-square-foot buildings at Chino Hills Professional Plaza are close to being fully leased, Collier said.
Chino Hills also is talking with the Irvine office of Phoenix-based Opus West Corp. about a possible 100,000-square-foot speculative office project that would be built near the 71 Freeway, Collier said.
Spring Pacific Properties has done other development in and around the Inland Empire, including homes in Highland and warehouses in Redlands.
For more than two years, the company fought opposition to a big housing development in Temecula known as Wolf Creek, which calls for more than 2,000 homes.
Last year the state Supreme Court refused to consider a legal challenge to Wolf Creek, clearing the way for the project. Initial work got under way last year.
Ascenzi is a staff writer with The Business Press in San Bernardino.
