San Diego-based Garden Communities of California has bought a multibuilding portion of the Colton Plaza office campus next to John Wayne Airport where the company plans to build a big multifamily project.
The apartment developer recently closed on the purchase of a six-building portfolio of offices at Colton Plaza, a mixed-use development between MacArthur Boulevard and Von Karman Avenue immediately north of Campus Drive in Irvine.
The mix of low-rise offices on Campus Drive and Martin Street are as large as 60,000 square feet, total nearly 250,000 square feet, and are on about 13 acres, according to brokerage data.
Affiliates of Irvine-based Colton Co., developer of the namesake office campus, sold the buildings to Garden Communities in a deal that closed late last year.
Financial terms of the sale weren’t immediately disclosed. A deal of at least $70 million appears likely, based on other similarly sized deals in the vicinity over the past year.
The new owner is expected to raze the offices in order to make way for a midrise multifamily project, although a time frame hadn’t been finalized, according to Dee Snow, manager of forward planning for Garden Communities.
Colton Cos. had been working with the city of Irvine over the past year to get approvals to build 876 apartment units on the site, negotiations which were still under way at the time of the sale.
Garden Communities plans to modify the prior owner’s plan, although specifics hadn’t been finalized, Snow said last week. The company is working with Irvine-based entitlement consultant Starpointe Ventures to get the project moving.
The latest deal reinforces Garden Communities’ standing as the largest apartment owner operating in the Irvine Business Complex, the 2,800-acre, largely commercial area around the airport.
The company’s apartment pipeline in the IBC—where about 7,000 residential units have been built over the past decade—now approaches 3,000 units.
No other area developer has more than a thousand units in the works, according to city filings.
The company has a 1,600-unit residential project called Elements that’s now in the early stages of construction a few blocks from the Colton Plaza site near the corner of Jamboree Road and Campus Drive.
It bought the roughly 23 acres for Elements in a series of transactions between 2013 and early 2015 estimated at about $130 million combined.
The first phase of the Elements project—where planned amenities include a bowling alley, restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool and fitness center—is scheduled to open next year.
The company’s other development in Irvine is on the other side of the San Diego (405) Freeway on Main Street. Construction is scheduled to be done later this year on the 9-acre Metropolis project, which encompasses 457 apartments. Garden Communities bought the land for the project in 2012 for an undisclosed price.
“It’s a wonderful city to work in,” said Snow of Irvine. “We’re indebted to the Irvine Company for doing all the groundwork (in the city),” referring to its planned development.
Garden Communities is owned by the Wilf family, whose affiliated companies reportedly own more than 90,000 apartment units and numerous commercial properties across the country.
The family’s best-known member is Zygi Wilf, owner of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings.
Changing Campus
Garden Communities’ purchase of the five offices marks another notable sale at Colton Plaza by the campus’ namesake developer.
About six months ago, affiliates of Colton Co. sold a pair of offices at the campus on MacArthur Boulevard, along with a vacant restaurant and a few acres surrounding the properties to Irvine-based Great Far East Inc.
The office buildings total about 100,000 square feet and hold the headquarters of automobile marketing company Autobytel Inc., among other tenants.
The 6.6-acre property was estimated to have sold for nearly $35.2 million, according to CoStar Group Inc. records.
Great Far East, a commercial real estate investor with funding from investors living in China, is planning to redevelop the site into a mix of new offices, a hotel, and retail space.
Details hadn’t been disclosed; plans will be filed with the city this year, according to Tim Strader Jr., a principal at Starpointe Ventures who’s working with Great Far East on the proposed development.
The Colton Plaza campus, along with the existing offices, also includes residential development built in recent years on former commercial sites. Recent additions include the Carlyle at Colton Plaza, a 156-unit rental project built by Beverly Hills-based New Pacific Realty Corp. across the street from the buildings Great Far East bought last year.
