Parker Properties LLC is planning another office building for its Summit Office Campus in Aliso Viejo.
The developer is in the design stage for an eight-story, 220,000-square-foot building along Enterprise Drive, next to the San Joaquin Hills (73) Toll Road, according to company executives.
The project would be next to a nine-story building Aliso Viejo-based Parker Properties is building for Pacific Life Insurance Co. of Newport Beach.
That 242,000-square-foot Pacific Life building, an expansion set to hold about half of the life insurer’s local workers, is due to open early next year.
The Pacific Life building and the other in the works aren’t as tall as some of the office towers and high-rise condominiums being built elsewhere in the county. But they’re big for Aliso Viejo: The Pacific Life building is set to be the tallest in the city with the other not far behind.
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Russ Parker: “The market (for leasing) is slow right now, but the dynamics of the Orange County market are still in our favor” |
Construction
Parker Properties still needs to get city approval for the planned building. Construction could start late next year or in 2009, according to Russ Parker, the family company’s vice chairman.
The Newport Beach-based office of Gensler Architects is working on the latest design.
Unlike the Pacific Life building, the one planned would be built on a speculative basis with the hope of luring tenants.
It would be the last big office building of the Summit campus, which will total about 1.8 million square feet of office space when finished. The remainder of the campus is mostly three- and four-story buildings.
Word of new building comes as Parker Properties is putting the finishing touches on two other buildings for lease at the campus.
As with office buildings going up in Irvine, getting tenants to fill the new buildings has been slower than expected.
So far, no tenants have been announced for Parker Properties’ two four-story office buildings, which are a combined 255,000 square feet. The buildings should be ready by September.
Only half of the 3.5 million square feet of office space under construction in the county has been preleased or was built to suit, according to the Irvine office of Voit Commercial Broker-age LP.
About 1 million square feet of that new space is in South County.
“The market (for leasing) is slow right now, but the dynamics of the Orange County market are still in our favor,” Parker said.
The developer initially planned a smaller, four-story building at the site. But it believes there’s demand for more space, he said.
Interest is coming from businesses in the Irvine Spectrum, Tustin and the area around John Wayne Airport, Parker said.
ClubSport Hotel
Construction also is moving ahead at the Summit on the estimated $70 million Renaissance Club-Sport, which should wrap up next spring. The project combines a six-story, 175-room Marriott Renaissance hotel with a 70,000-square-foot upscale gym. It’s the first ClubSport in Southern California.
The planned office building at the Summit is one of the larger office developments proposed for South County this year.
Following a wave of construction that broke ground across the county last year, developers have been reticent to move ahead with newer projects in 2007, especially with leases slow in coming.
In the John Wayne Airport area, a few projects have been proposed. Hines Interests LP is in the early stages of getting city approval for about 700,000 square feet of campus-style, mid-rise office space in Irvine along Jamboree Road.
Nearby on Jamboree, a five-story, 125,000-square-foot building is going up at the Scholle Center.
Newport Beach-based homebuilder John Laing Homes plans to lease a little more than half of the building.
With the end of development in sight for Summit, Parker said he and his father, Chairman John Parker, are eyeing spots outside the county, notably San Diego, to build similar office parks.
The company also wants to do more medical office development, he said.
Parker Properties is moving ahead with one project in Los Angeles County.
It recently broke ground on a five-story, 144,000-square-foot office building in Santa Clarita.
