Add another office project to The Irvine Company’s development pipeline.
The Newport Beach-based developer recently started construction on Jamboree Business Center, a 231,000-square-foot, low-rise office complex on Michelle Drive and Jamboree Road.
The West Irvine development is near the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway and the 261 Toll Road, near the Market Place shopping center in Irvine and Tustin.
The project, due to finish in early 2008, is set to have three office buildings at three stories each. The buildings are roughly 77,000 square feet each.
Jamboree Business Center is spread over two adjacent sites and includes 15 acres of parking and landscaping.
The Irvine office of San Diego-based Roel Construction Co. is the general contractor for the project. Westling & Associates of Newport Beach is the construction manager. LPA Inc. of Irvine is the architect.
It’s the same team working on a similar Irvine Co. office development, the 316,000-square-foot Discovery Business Center in the Irvine Spectrum.
That $22 million project, nearing completion, has six two-story buildings. Los Angeles-based based Capital Group Cos. recently signed a multiyear lease for two of those buildings, totaling 99,000 square feet, as part of the mutual fund manager’s relocation of its Orange County operations from Brea.
The Irvine Co.’s Web site lists rents of $2.35 per square foot for the Jamboree Business Center offices. Similar new low-rise office buildings, including Discovery Business Center, are seeing rents closer to $2.05 per square foot.
High-rise offices being built by the Irvine Co. have rents starting at $3.60 per square foot.
Company officials cite the region’s low vacancy rate and strong employment and job growth as reasons for the latest project.
“Our Orange County portfolio is about 95% leased,” Irvine Co. spokesman Bill Rams said. “The buildings will be close to the airport with easy access to the freeways and toll road. Plus, companies have a world-class amenity in the nearby restaurants and shopping at The Market Place.”
The development adds to an already busy slate of office projects, including low-rise offices and towers, under way by the Irvine Co.
OC’s largest landlord has more than 70 floors of high-rise office space either planned or under development locally. Construction began earlier this year on three towers, the company’s first office high-rises in more than 15 years.
The company is well under way on 20-40 Pacifica, twin 15-story towers next to Irvine Spectrum Center, as well as another tower at the company’s recently acquired Irvine Center Towers complex near John Wayne Airport.
A 12-story office building is planned at Jamboree Center nearby in Irvine, and two 12-story buildings have been proposed for University Research Park, next to the University of California, Irvine.
Among other projects, the company is nearing completion of a 700,000-square-foot campus in University Research Park for chipmaker Broadcom Corp.
