Condominium tower developers have a long-term trend on their side. High-rise living is inevitable in a county running out of space for new homes.
But pardon them for having some near-term concerns.
“It’s clear that the heat is off the market,” said Tim O’Brien, senior vice president for the Irvine office of Chicago-based Fifield Cos., which plans a condo tower near South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.
A cooling housing market is set to test dozens of condo towers under construction or planned from Irvine to Anaheim.
Speculators, who helped drive sales at the county’s first condo towers along Jamboree Road in Irvine, seemed to have moved on.
And at least one real estate analyst said he thinks some of the towers now planned around the county won’t be built before demand picks up again.
“Developers are targeting a thin market segment,” said real estate economist Walter Hahn, who does consulting work from Irvine. “If they’re smart, some of them will stop where they are.”
Condo developers say they are undaunted.
“High-density development in Orange County is going to happen,” said Cory Alder, president of Santa Ana-based developer Nexus Cos., which is building twin towers near its headquarters. “Its time has come.”
There now are eight towers, totaling about 1,000 homes, in construction or in sales mode, in Irvine and on the edge of Santa Ana along MacArthur Boulevard.
Roughly an additional 30 high-rises with some 3,000 homes have been proposed throughout the county, including big projects in Costa Mesa and Anaheim.
No one has said they’re putting off plans amid a slowdown in home sales and prices that are flattening out.
But there have been a few hiccups.
In August, Shea Homes, the homebuilding arm of Walnut-based J.F. Shea Co., pulled out of plans to build a 573-home development in Santa Ana that included a 24-story tower.
In Irvine, slow reselling of condos by speculators at Bosa Development Corp.’s Marquee Towers at Park Place has become a source of gossip for local real estate executives.
For more on this story, see the Oct. 9 edition of the Business Journal.
