Tustin Mayor Doug Davert says he’s happy to have a jump on Irvine when it comes to redeveloping his city’s former Marine base.
“We’re glad that we’ve got things moving forward before the market softens,” Davert said during a tour of the 1,500-acre site earlier this month.
Tustin and Irvine’s larger El Toro “are two totally different projects,” he said.
“That said, we’re glad that we’ll be going to market well before they are,” Davert said.
Large parts of the Tustin Legacy project at the former Marine helicopter base are moving ahead.
The first 560 homes built on the edge of the base by Newport Beach’s John Laing Homes are just about done and sold.
The Villages of Columbus, another 2,000-home development by the local office of Miami’s Lennar Corp. and Newport Beach’s William Lyon Homes Inc., also is seeing strong sales, according to Christine Shingleton, Tustin’s assistant city manager.
And construction of a shopping center, The District at Tustin Legacy, is under way with stores set to open in spring.
By contrast, the final development plan for El Toro, the 3,700-acre former base in Irvine, still is being refined. Homes at El Toro, including some possible condominium towers, are a few years away.
Of course, a slowing housing market still could trip up sales at Tustin Legacy. The bulk of about 4,500 homes planned there is set to be done in the next six to eight years.
Work now ranges from $360 million worth of projects, such as tarmac demolition and road improvements to early home and retail building.
Initial returns show strong support for Tustin Legacy, according to city officials.
Lennar, which has its Western regional office in Aliso Viejo, is seeing sales of about 12 homes per week at the first neighborhoods in the Villages of Columbus.
The first residents are set to move in late next month.
John Laing saw nine homes sold per week on average at its first development, Shingleton said.
Next week marks a big milestone for the project. The largest part of the base’s redevelopment, the 740-acre Legacy Park, is set for a groundbreaking ceremony on Oct. 3.
Legacy Park is being developed by the city, units of Walnut-based J.F. Shea Co. and Dallas-based Centex Corp.
Plans there call for 2,105 homes and 6.7 million square feet of offices, restaurants, shops and hotels.
The roughly 4,500 homes being built in all at Tustin Legacy will bring about 12,000 residents to Tustin, which now counts a population of about 70,000.
Critics of the Tustin project have questioned the site’s lack of more urban development with condo towers, emphasizing instead a more suburban feel.
Tustin officials brush off such suggestions. They point to Tustin Legacy’s affordable housing,21% of the homes planned there are set to be affordable.
Also planned: educational facilities, a large number of senior homes and The Village of Hope, a 5-acre site dedicated to housing homeless and poor families, being led by the Orange County Rescue Mission.
Meanwhile, The District at Tustin Legacy, the 111-acre retail project on the base being built by Phoenix-based Vestar Development Co. and New York-based Kimco Realty Corp., is moving ahead.
The District plans a March opening for the first part of its 1 million-square-foot development, according to Jeffrey Axtell, Vestar project manager. The plan is to have the stores in place before most of the homes are built, he said.
“The city wanted us to go first, so that the infrastructure would be in place for the rest (of the base),” Axtell said.
Vestar and Kimco are responsible for about $90 million worth of work on roads and other basics.
Tenants at The District are set to include a Target, Lowe’s, Whole Foods, Costco and an AMC movie complex.
And while Tustin passed on more urban development at the former base, it stands to benefit from condo towers going up in the Irvine Business Complex near John Wayne Airport, according to Shingleton. Condo dwellers there are likely to come to Tustin Legacy to shop, she said.
“People living in the IBC will end up spending their money in Tustin,” Shingleton said.
