Opus West Planning Campus Apartments
By MATHEW PADILLA
The Irvine office of Opus West Corp. plans to add to the sizeable stock of planned and existing apartments on Jamboree Road in Irvine.
In doing so, the developer will turn a portion of the Campus Centre commercial project into a mixed-use project that could include 343 apartments in two four-story buildings.
Opus also is planning two five-story office buildings on the land, between Campus Drive and Dupont Drive on Jamboree Road.
The company has closed escrow on half of about 13 acres of Campus Centre and is set to close escrow on the other half this summer.
Phoenix-based Opus is acquiring the land from Prudential Insurance Co. for an undisclosed price.
It’s working with Irvine-based Starpointe Ventures on the entitlement and development of the project. The residential component must be approved by the city of Irvine.
“It’s a fabulous opportunity to create an urban mixed-use environment,” said Paul Marshall, senior vice president with Opus.
Prudential and Starpointe have worked for years on Campus Centre, which currently includes the development of Watermarke, a 535-unit, four-story apartment building being developed by Irvine-based Sares-Regis Group.
Watermarke overlooks the University of California, Irvine’s arboretum.
Four is the magic number for stories of apartment buildings in OC, since going to five requires steel framing and raises costs, developers say.
Some developers decry the ubiquitous presence of four-story buildings, since they can’t be added to vertically as population grows.
Further west on Jamboree Road, Bosa Development Corp. plans two 18-story condominium towers, which would mark the first high-rise residential buildings in the county.
In any case, Opus West is not in any way contributing to a glut of apartments, according to brokers.
Demand is strong enough in the area that most of Watermarke should be leased up by the time Opus begins looking for tenants, according to David Eagle, senior vice president with the Newport Beach office of Grubb & Ellis Co. Eagle does apartment deals.
“Opus West is a pretty shrewd developer,” Eagle said.
Opus also plans twin class A, five-story office buildings, each 133,000 square feet, for a portion of Campus Centre.
The developer will build one building at a time, and is looking to prelease part of the first building before construction begins, Marshall said.
He said the company has just begun lining up tenants.
“Given today’s economic climate we would probably not continue without some preleasing,” Marshall said. “If the market shows consistent signs of improvement we would commence on speculative.”
Opus previously developed two office towers in the Irvine Business Center.
Office vacancies remain high in OC, but several California-based companies have reported strong first-quarter earnings.
Amid these mixed signals a couple developers are moving forward with low-rise office projects.
Newport Beach-based The Irvine Company is working on a three-story class A building in Newport Center.
Opus is in the process of securing permits from the city of Irvine for the planned apartments. The entitlement process should be done by the fourth quarter, according to Tim Strader Jr., president of Starpointe.
His company plans to buy a parcel of Campus Centre and lease 8,000 square feet to a restaurant owner.
Campus Centre also includes entitlement for a 250-room hotel.
