Do your homework.
That’s the biggest piece of advice Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido would offer to developers looking to build in California’s ninth-largest city.
“At the end of the day, the best projects are the ones that have the least opposition,” Pulido said at a recent conference in Costa Mesa, sponsored by trade publication California Real Estate Journal.
Santa Ana still is looking to rezone “hundreds of acres” in the city and is looking to areas such as Pasadena and Santa Monica for cues on smart urban redevelopment, Pulido said.
One company that got it right is Santa Ana-based Nexus Cos., with its plan for condominium towers near John Wayne Airport, Pulido said.
Nexus recently started construction on Skyline at MacArthur Place, a two-tower, $350 million condo project set among the offices and stores of the area known as Hutton Centre. The project includes two 25-story buildings.
Before moving ahead, Nexus addressed concerns by agreeing to fund street and parking upgrades and make school investments. This got the area’s neighborhood association on board with the project early on, Pulido said.
One project Pulido noticeably didn’t mention: Michael Harrah’s One Broadway Plaza. The planned 37-story office tower in the heart of Santa Ana has faced heavy opposition.
A timeline for the county’s tallest office project still appears unsettled.
Harrah’s Santa Ana-based Caribou Industries Inc. fenced off the One Broadway Plaza site earlier this summer and has started grading. Local officials said they haven’t received any updates as to when construction will begin.
Developer Plans Hawaii Homes
Shopoff Group, a developer based in Irvine, just bought a 45-acre parcel on the Big Island of Hawaii along the Kona coast. Terms weren’t disclosed.
The company already owned three adjacent parcels in Kona totaling 83 acres, following a 2005 acquisition. Shopoff plans to develop the entire 128 acres into a housing development and park. The company expects to build 200 homes, on lots ranging from 7,500 to 20,000 square feet.
It should take three years to receive the necessary approvals, Shopoff said. Sales could begin in 2010.
Los Angeles-based Maguire Properties Inc. has kicked off its second big office project in Irvine.
The real estate investment trust recently began construction of the fifth and final office building at its 16-acre Washington Mutual campus, at Von Karman Avenue and Main Street. The building will be five stories and 145,000 square feet.
No tenants have been signed yet, according to William Flaherty, senior vice president of leasing and marketing for Maguire. The company had been in talks with a potential tenant that would take up a majority of the space.
Washington Mutual Inc. leases the majority of the other four buildings, which total about 416,000 square feet.
Maguire is on a tight construction schedule for the latest building. It expects to finish by August. Plans also include a 1,583-space parking structure. The company’s 530,000-square-foot tower at Park Place also is set for a late 2007 completion.
The immediate area around the Washington Mutual campus is set to see a big residential push. At the northeast corner of Main and Von Karman, Irvine-based Standard Pacific Corp. in July received city approval to build five condo buildings totaling 445 units. The site has housed the operations of Irvine-based shoemaker American Sporting Goods Corp.
KBS Buys Into St. Louis
KBS Real Estate Investment Trust in Newport Beach is planning its third and largest acquisition since kicking off its deal-making operations in July.
KBS is buying The Plaza in Clayton, a 16-story office building in St. Louis. The price is $93.3 million, or about $287 per square foot. The deal follows about $40 million worth of acquisitions that KBS made earlier in Florida and New York.
The 325,172-square-foot St. Louis building was built in 2001 on a 2.3-acre site. The property is 97% full, with major tenants including law firm Husch & Eppenberger LLC and Ernst & Young LLP.
The yearly base rent for tenants at the Plaza in Clayton is $9.2 million. The deal closed last week, according to the company.
KBS plans to fund the purchase with a loan and proceeds from the company’s public offering, an ongoing pool that kicked off in January and could raise as much as $2 billion.
As of last month, the company had received proceeds of about $10 million from the blind pool offering.
Newport Beach’s KBS Realty Advisors, the real estate investment firm led by Chief Executive Charles Schreiber Jr., oversees KBS Real Estate Investment Trust and its brokerage operations.
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