RESIDENTIAL
When it comes to apartments, The Irvine Company is a long way from the top on a national scale. But the Newport Beach-based landlord owner keeps gaining.
This year, the Irvine Co. moved up five slots from 2004 to No. 34 in a national ranking of apartment owners done by the National Multi Housing Council, a trade group based in Washington, D.C.
The company’s The Irvine Company Apartment Communities unit owns 27,675 apartments, up 7% from a year ago.
A big chunk of the gain came from a project in San Jose dubbed North Park, according to company spokeswoman Jennifer Hieger. North Park is set to include 2,600 apartments when it’s done, she said.
The Irvine Co. also worked on apartment projects in Orange County last year, she said.
East Coast companies dominate the top
50 ranking. OC counts several big apart-
ment owners, though they didn’t make the list.
They include: Irvine’s Western National Group, which owns 13,000 apartments and manages another 12,000; Newport Beach’s Olen Properties Corp., which owns about 10,500 apartments; Irvine’s Sares-Regis Group, which has 8,000 apartments and manages another 4,000; Aliso Viejo-based Shea Properties, which owns 7,000 apartments; and Costa Mesa’s Arnel & Affiliates, which has about 5,000 apartments.
Irvine Co.’s Orchard Hills
In other Irvine Co. news, the company is gearing up to start a big housing development, according to the Orange County Report, a newsletter about local real estate.
The Irvine Co. plans 4,300 homes and apartments in northern Irvine, including some hillside units, according to the newsletter.
The company has finished its environmental study of the project, dubbed Orchard Hills. Public hearings should start in spring.
Homes are set to be divided in four neighborhoods “amid large groves of avocado trees and eucalyptus windrows,” according to the newsletter.
The first homes should be done in early 2007.
Inland Empire Land Buy
Costa Mesa-based Donahue Schriber Realty Corp. and Los Angeles-based Pardee Homes bought 308 acres of land in Menifee in Riverside County.
Schriber, a real estate investment trust, picked up 68 acres with plans to build shops. Pardee bought 240 acres with an eye to building 950 homes.
The sale price wasn’t disclosed.
The project, dubbed Countryside, should break ground next year.
The land is near Interstate 215. Costa Mesa-based Sutter Bay Corp., a unit of Washington Mutual Inc., sold the land.
Michelle Schierberl of Grubb & Ellis Co.’s Newport Beach office represented the buyers.
COMMERCIAL
No Foolin’
It was no joke. On April Fools Day, some residents from the Brea area protested a 3,600-home development planned by Aera Energy LLC, a venture of Shell Oil Co. and Exxon Mobil Corp., according to the Whittier Daily News.
When oil wells dry up, Aera Energy plans to build homes on its 3,000 acres straddling Brea, La Habra and Los Angeles County.
The protestors, including eco-friendly folk, occupied all four corners of Whittier and Harbor boulevards, waving signs such as “Save the Hills” and “Tell Shell to Sell.”
Project opponents want a government agency to buy the land and keep it as open space. The protestors plan to stand at the street corner every Friday at rush hour.
Aera Energy’s land is a combination of oil fields and grass mostly in Los Angeles County. The company has promised to set aside half the land as open space.
That promise isn’t enough to pacify opponents. They said the project would cut right through a wildlife corridor that has been planned for years.
Giving up half a developer’s land or more as open space has become common in OC in recent years. Examples abound.
In one case, the Irvine Co.’s agreed to set aside 20,000 of 22,000 acres,90%,it controls east of Orange. In Irvine, the company is set to leave 67% of its planned 7,700-acre Northern Sphere development as open space.
In South County, Rancho Mission Viejo LLC has earmarked 60% of its 23,000 acres east of Mission Viejo as open space. The family company is looking to build 14,000 homes and 5 million square feet of commercial space.
Looks like the Orange County Register realized mortgage companies are leasing a lot of office space in OC by the looks of the paper’s April 7 story, “Lenders bursting at their seams.”
The story had a remarkable statement: Mortgage companies occupy 8% to 10% of all office space in OC. The county has 97 million square feet of office space. That would give mortgage companies 8 million to 9 million square feet of space.
The article attributed the estimated range to Jerry Holdner of Voit Commercial Brokerage LP.
I gave Holdner a buzz to do a quick fact check. I had heard the number is closer to 5% for mortgage companies.
Holdner said he gave the daily paper a rough estimate and that it was for “mortgage-related companies”,not just lenders and brokers. He said he lumped in title and escrow companies as well.
Holdner’s 8% to 10% estimate still is dramatic, since title and escrow companies also are sensitive to higher interest rates.
Long-term rates finally are edging up. The question now is whether mortgage companies end up giving back some office space in the form of subleases.
