Sometimes the best way to get a foot in the door with a Southern California company is to go north.
Hoping it serves as the opening to future work, Irvine-based MBK Construction Ltd. has been awarded a $94 million contract to build the first phase of Irvine Apartment Communities’ North Park, a 60-acre, 2,400-unit apartment community in San Jose.
MBK Construction, a division of MBK Real Estate Ltd., will oversee construction of more than 600 apartment homes, three fitness centers and swimming pools, 7,000 square feet of retail space and a 5,000-square-foot leasing center.
Frank Moson, senior vice president of MBK, said the North Park contract offers his firm an opportunity to show IAC executives what they can do. Traditionally, he said, IAC works with a select group of subcontractors on their various projects in Southern California, making it difficult for new firms to get work.
IAC’s push into Northern California “has provided some expanded opportunity for people that hadn’t done work with them. The fact is that IAC, just like we are, is a relationships-based company that finds there’s a certain synergy between builder, architect and developer. If it works, they will use us again and again,” Moson said.
John Morgan, IAC’s senior vice president for construction, cited MBK’s experience as a reason for tapping them to do the work.
“MBK Construction brings management strength and a strong track record of execution to the West Coast commercial construction industry,” Morgan said. “We’re pleased to have them on the IAC development team.”
Moson said the first order of business would be to complete the first phase in a way that convinces the IAC folks to award future phase work to MBK Construction. Additionally, MBK hopes the opening in Northern California will lead to some work in Southern California.
While important because of the opportunity to establish a relationship with IAC, the North Park contract continues an expansion into Northern California by MBK Construction, which already has done work on two hotels, two large apartment communities and a couple of movie houses for AMC.
MBK Construction is close to winning work from a couple of other clients, one of which would involve a $150 million development in San Jose, as well as new contracts with existing clients.
