Transwestern Commercial Services plans to start construction in August on a 230,000-square-foot office tower in Irvine.
The high-rise would make Transwestern the first developer to build a major speculative office building in Orange County in three years.
Other office buildings have been built with a major tenant lined up ahead of construction.
Officials with Houston-based Transwestern said they want to build their tower before a handful of other developers with similar plans finish work.
“It’s better to be the lead dog, than behind,” said William Lawrence, senior vice president of development with Transwestern.
Transwestern, which has offices in Irvine, is developing the 10-story tower at 18100 Von Karman Ave. for the site’s land owners: affiliate Transwestern Investment Co. of Chicago and Cigna Realty Investors, a unit of Philadelphia-based Cigna Corp.
The tower is expected to cost around $70 million to build.
For more on this story, see the June 27 edition of the Business Journal.
