A big housing project for the Air Force is leading to business for a trio of local companies.
The Air Force just awarded a $750 million contract to refurbish existing homes and build new homes at three bases: Barksdale in Louisiana, Langley in Virginia and Washington, D.C.’s Bolling.
BLB Family Housing LLC won the contract. The company is a venture of Pinnacle AMS Develop-ment Co. of Irvine and Hunt Building Corp. of El Paso, Texas.
The project,the largest Air Force housing award,is expected to last seven years, starting this fall. The companies plan to refurbish 362 “historically significant” homes on the bases. Nearly 3,200 homes are to be built for Air Force families. Plans call for 1,753 duplexes and quadplexes.
The BLB venture also is handling maintenance and operation of the housing developments through a reported 50-year lease of 433 acres on the bases.
Pinnacle, a division of Seattle’s American Management Services Co., is headed locally by managing director M. Scott Orrantia. Mike Rouen is the company’s director of military housing.
There are two other local ties to the Air Force project. MVE & Partners Inc. of Irvine is providing architectural services, while Irvine’s EDAW is in charge of land planning and landscape design.
Marino Eyes La Quinta
Newport Beach-based developer Jim Marino, known for his investments and development of strip malls, has a project in the works.
His Marino Investments recently bought a 13-acre property in La Quinta from Birmingham, Ala.-based Coral Mountain Partners LLC. Marino plans to build a shopping center with a grocery and drugstore at the site.
Marino declined to say how much he paid for the land. The development is projected to cost about $30 million.
He plans to start construction for the La Quinta project later this year. It will be built over two phases. The shopping center’s design is set to reflect a theme consistent with the Andalusia region in Spain, Marino said.
Marino also has a 35-acre project in the works in Beaumont. His largest recent deal in the county was the $11 million buy of the 45,014-square-foot Brea Imperial Center a few years ago.
Bristol Plaza Sale
Another big real estate investment trust is being sold. But unlike last month’s Equity Office Properties Trust-Maguire Properties Inc. blockbuster deal, there shouldn’t be too much of a local impact.
New Plan Excel Realty Trust Inc., a shopping center owner based in New York, said late last month that it was being bought by affiliates of Australia-based Centro Properties Group for $3.4 billion in cash. New Plan valued the transaction at $6.2 billion, including the assumption of debt and preferred stock.
New Plan has a portfolio spanning 38 states, with more than 450 community and neighborhood shopping centers totaling about 67.6 million square feet.
In Orange County, there’s just one new plan property, Santa Ana’s Bristol Plaza. The shopping center is a few blocks from South Coast Plaza on South Bristol Street.
The 111,403-square-foot center was built in 1972 and renovated in 1998. It’s home to a Trader Joe’s, and also has an In-N-Out Burger. The center is about 97% full, according to New Plan.
The number of homes coming on the market for sale stand to start rising sharply again in the next few months, according to the latest data from the Aliso Viejo-based office of Re-Max Real Estate Services.
The current number of homes for sale in OC now stands at 12,200, about 3,150 more than a year ago.
Re-Max President Steven Thomas said in his latest local report to expect the number to increase to 18,000 homes during the late summer peak seller market. Last year the inventory went as high as 16,000 homes, before discouraged sellers took their listings off the market.
“It will be interesting to see how buyers and sellers alike respond to the increased inventory and market time,” Thomas said in his report. “Will sellers pull their homes off in frustration, similar to the second half of 2006? It would probably be a safe bet. Will buyers hedge their bets and sit on the fence longer, softening demand, again similar to the second half of 2006? That would be another safe bet.”
Roughly 23% of all the detached homes on the market are empty, while about 33% of all the condominiums on the market are empty.
