Office
The Orange County office market started off 2000 with another strong quarter of construction activity. Four different projects had buildings completed in the first quarter of the year, in the Airport Area and South Orange County. One two-story building completed construction in Santa Ana adding just more than 94,000 square feet to the Airport Area market. South Orange County had a total of 341,770 square feet added to the office base in the first quarter with the following completions: Towne Centre Plaza in Foothill Ranch completed construction on a trio of three-story buildings; the Pacific View Corporate Center in San Juan Capistrano completed construction on the first of three three-story buildings slated for the project, with the other two buildings expected to break ground in May, and the Sycamore Commons Corporate Center, also in San Juan Capistrano, completed construction on a pair of two-story buildings, with one more building proposed for that center. There are another 22 office projects under construction in the Orange County market totaling 3.5 million square feet, with another 14.2 million square feet in the planning pipeline.
Industrial
The industrial market started off the New Year by completing the development of 15 buildings, the majority of which were manufacturing and warehouse-type projects. Nearly 89% (797,653 square feet) of all the M & W; completions occurred in the North Orange County market. South Orange County is the only market that had any research and development space completed in the first quarter: 138,520 square feet of R & D; space were added to the base in Rancho Santa Margarita. There are 42 industrial projects under construction totaling just more than 1.6 million square feet. This is a further decline in construction activity, which started in the second quarter of 1999. However, despite the tightening supply of buildable, entitled land, there are another 47 projects in the planning stages that, if built, would add more than 2.8 million square feet to the OC industrial base.
Retail
Retail construction activity increased to 2.4 million square feet in the first quarter, up from the 2 million square feet that were under construction at the end of 1999. Only one center was completed in the first quarter, an 80,435-square-foot neighborhood center in North Orange County. In addition to the centers that remain under construction, three new centers broke ground to start off the century: a 135,000-square-foot strip center in Huntington Beach, a 150,000-square-foot neighborhood center in Irvine, and a 175,000-square-foot specialty center in Anaheim. Combined, these new centers will add 460,000 square feet to the Orange County retail base upon completion.
