COMMERCIAL
Condominiums on top of shops, a class A office building, a health club and a hotel. Sounds like a nice Orange County project,except this one’s in Ontario.
The Irvine office of Sacramento-based Panattoni Development Co. said last month that it’s set to pay $26 million to the city of Ontario for 94 acres near the Ontario Mills mall and the San Bernardino (I-10) Freeway.
The developer envisions what it calls Piemonte, a mixed project with 800 condos, 55,000 square feet of shops next to and under the condos, another 309,000 square feet of shops, 380,000 square feet of offices, a 45,000-square-foot health club and a 236-room hotel.
Construction is set to begin late next year on the first phase, which includes an 80,000-square-foot office building and a hotel.
The project marks a shift for Panattoni in Southern California.
The developer is known more here for its industrial projects. Panattoni controls 4.9 million square feet of commercial space in the Inland Empire.
There’s more to the Piemonte project.
The city is considering using Panattoni’s money, or some of it, to build a sports and entertainment center that could house a minor league hockey team and an American Basketball Association team, as well as other events and concerts.
The center would seat about 8,000.
If approved, construction could begin next year with completion in early 2007.
Ontario Mayor Gary C. Ovitt is bullish on the project. Population growth in the city and San Bernardino County requires more urban housing, shops and entertainment venues, he said.
“We also believe that building a regional destination venue such as a major events center will spur even greater economic activity,” Ovitt said in a statement.
The land is part of a larger 200-acre area the city bought in 1998 for $17 million from developers.
The mayor said all the proposed development would generate $7 million to $8 million in revenue for the city.
Panattoni’s announcement follows on the heels of the city’s land sale to Mathis Brothers Furniture for development of a 360,000-square-foot furniture showroom and warehouse.
The store is set to be next to the Piemonte site.
Mathis Brothers plans to start construction in 2005.
A Housing Turn
The area just east of John Wayne Airport in Irvine continues to see land once marked for office space turned into housing.
Last month, the Irvine office of Foster City-based Legacy Partners said it paid $16.4 million for two office buildings totaling 64,000 square feet at 2801 and 2811 Main St., near Jamboree Road.
Legacy already has razed the buildings to make way for 294 luxury apartments.
The project, dubbed Legacy at Main & Jamboree, is set to feature a four-story apartment building with 13,000 square feet of shops on the ground floor.
Randy Teteak of Irvine-based O’Donnell/Atkins represented Legacy in the buy of the 5.2-acre site. Doug Killian and Jeff Williams of Voit Commercial Brokerage’s Irvine office represented the seller, Irvine’s R.D. Olson Development.
There are 10 condominium high-rises under construction or planned for the area along Jamboree. The 10 buildings are planned for three sites, including two originally zoned for commercial space.
A third-quarter report by Studley Inc. noted that there only are two office projects under construction in the area: 4 and 5 First American Way. Those buildings are an expansion of Santa Ana-based First American Corp.’s campus.
RESIDENTIAL
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The Irvine Company’s Villa Siena: no condo map |
When Irvine’s Sares-Regis Group decided this summer to sell some units as condominiums at its new luxury apartment complex Watermarke in Irvine, it got me to thinking.
Before building the project, Sares-Regis put a condo map on it, just in case. A condo map on an apartment project allows a developer to switch hit later in the game.
Watermarke on Campus Drive is just down Jamboree from The Irvine Company’s Villa Siena luxury apartment complex.
So, out of simple curiosity, I called the county’s largest landowner to ask if they had a condo map on Villa Siena, you know, just in case.
Bill Rams, an Irvine Co. spokesman, said the developer doesn’t put condo maps on its apartment projects in Irvine.
But he said it does in other cities, sometimes.
“We do, but only when there are no extra requirements,” he said.
In other words, if it’s not a lot of extra headache to do a condo map, the Irvine Co. does one.
“We process our apartments the way we’ve always processed them,” Rams said. “We don’t have any plans to convert our apartments to condos, and we aren’t even considering it.”
