Aliso Viejo’s Shea Properties is moving forward with an expansion of Vantis, a large office project in Aliso Viejo.
The company, a unit of Walnut-based J.F. Shea Co., is set to break ground in December on an 81,000-square-foot office building at 130 Vantis. It started work in June on a parking structure there.
The big change: Shea plans to begin prep work in October for 400 condominiums at Vantis.
Original plans called for 1.5 million square feet of offices and no housing, according to Bradley Pontius, vice president of development with Shea, who is overseeing the project. The company now plans 700,000 square feet of offices, he said.
It’s a sign of the times. Big developers such as J.F. Shea and Newport Beach’s The Irvine Company long have had separate arms handling different properties. Typically, one division does housing and another commercial space.
Now housing, offices and shops are commingling. And developers are commingling office guys and housing and retail folks.
Shea’s Pontius said he originally started working on Vantis about five years ago when it was seen as purely office. As the office market slumped and housing boomed, Pontius began working with sister company Brea-based Shea Homes of Southern California on changing the plan, he said.
“There is a history of collaboration here,” Pontius said of Shea’s divisions. “This was a chance for us to fine tune that relationship. We think that’s a competitive advantage.”
The developer plans 45 condos with zoning for home offices, more than 260 townhomes and about 100 stacked units.
Vantis now is home to a 177,000-square-foot office building, mostly leased to Seattle-based Safeco Corp.
Shea has some flexibility in how large or small future office buildings could be at the site, according to Pontius.
Tim Joyce and Oliver Fleener of Grubb & Ellis Co.’s Newport Beach office are marketing 130 Vantis.
Newport Beach-based The Koll Co. is going forward with the second phase of its development in the Irvine Spectrum, now that it has sold all of the buildings in its first phase.
Koll bought an extra 11.7 acres in the Spectrum,likely for the last small buildings for sale there for a while. The Irvine Co. has halted sales of land to developers of small buildings.
Donald Koll’s development company is set to do 47 more office and light industrial buildings at Koll Center. They should range from 1,600 to 7,400 square feet.
The next phase of buildings is set for the northeast corner of Irvine Center Drive and Scientific Way, directly across the street from the business park’s 27-building first phase.
The 47 buildings should be 50% office and 50% industrial space. Some could be 100% office.
Like the 140,000-square-foot first phase, the 184,000-square-foot second phase should feature a campus layout with outdoor seating.
Buildings in the first phase are reaching completion this month. The second phase should be done late next year.
Second-phase sales are expected to begin next month. Mike Hartel, Kevin Turner and Joe Winkelmann of Colliers Seeley International Inc. are marketing Koll Center.
Less Space for Option One
At this point, mortgage industry consolidation seems assured, with the only question being how soon. So any news of mortgage companies and office space here is notable.
Irvine-based subprime lender Option One Mortgage Corp., a unit of H & R; Block Inc., is reducing by about 30,000 square feet the amount of space it leases from the Irvine Co.
No layoffs are in the offing, according to company spokeswoman Christine Sullivan. The company is making more efficient use of its space, including offices in buildings not owned by the Irvine Co., she said.
Still, not so long ago mortgage companies signed large leases with the expectation they would grow into any extra space.
Option One and other lenders have become less profitable amid rising short-term interest rates.
Lenders make loans based on long-term rates and then sell the loans as bonds to investors based on short-term rates. That spread has been shrinking as the Federal Reserve Bank raises a key short-term rate.
H & R; Block reported a 28% drop in profits from mortgage services in its fiscal year ending in April, reversing the trend of growing profits from its mortgage operations.
Option One now leases 193,752 square feet from the Irvine Co. at 3 Ada Parkway, part of the Lakeview Business Center, according to the lender. It’s renewing its lease, effective September 2006, for 161,336 square feet. The new lease runs through September 2009.
Stephen Pisarik of Colliers Seeley represented Option One in the lease renewal.
The lender also leases 246,324 square feet from the Irvine Co. on Irvine Center Drive. There is no change to that lease, which also runs through September 2009, according to Option One.
