The remaking of the area around John Wayne Airport in Irvine could see more offices and a little less condominium development with the recent sale of St. John Knits International Inc.’s building.
The St. John building would have been ripe for condos at the peak of the housing market a year ago.
But new owner Hines Interests LP of Houston, which bought the building with pension fund California Public Employees’ Retirement System, is leaning toward an “office dominant” redevelopment, according to Douglas Holte, director of Orange County and San Diego operations for Hines.
Plans still are in the early stages. St. John, which had owned the building, leased it back until 2011. The company makes women’s suits at the building at Michelson Drive and Jamboree Road.
Condos are going up or are planned all around the site.
The St. John building is directly across from Lennar Corp.’s 1,380-home Central Park West development. Bosa Development Corp.’s finished condo towers are across Jamboree. A couple blocks away, Opus West Corp. and Geoffrey H. Edmunds & Associates Inc. are putting up a trio of condo towers.
With a slowdown in home sales, “now, the publicly traded homebuilders are out of the market on new deals,” said Tim Strader Jr., principal for Irvine-based Starpointe Ventures, a consultant to developers.
Most homebuilders aren’t looking for space to redevelop anymore. In some cases, they are looking to off-load land.
“It is only going to become more common, (considering) the softness in the residential market,” Strader said.
Developers still are bullish on the office market, which sports some of the best vacancy figures of any market in the country.
An office project also is an easier sell in the area, known as the Irvine Business Complex.
For more on this story, see the Nov. 6 edition of the Business Journal.
