The owners of the popular Diamond Jamboree shopping center in Irvine are proceeding with plans for a sizable addition to their project.
Even better news for fans of the retail center, where finding a parking spot during peak hours can often be an exercise in patience: another parking structure that’s also on the drawing board.
San Gabriel-based Diamond Development Group filed a proposal with Irvine’s planning commission last month to build a 23,000-square-foot extension to the project, which is a few miles from John Wayne Airport at the intersection of Jamboree Road and Alton Parkway.
It would be on 1.7 acres next to the center at 2550 Alton, which is now used as overflow parking for Diamond Jamboree employees. The shopping center’s existing structures are on about 12 acres.
The 113,000-square-foot Diamond Jamboree, which opened in 2008, is the largest new retail center in the airport area of Irvine of the past 11 years. The two-story center has been largely full since opening, Asian restaurants and stores occupying most of it, though it’s had its share of tenant turnover.
One early anchor tenant, restaurant Capital Seafood, recently closed, but the center’s owners indicated a replacement restaurant is being lined up.
Its busiest shop, the 85°C Bakery Cafe chain’s first Orange County location, was recently renovated.
About 16,500 square feet of the proposed addition would be reserved for restaurants, the balance for retail, according to city filings. Like Diamond Jamboree’s first phase, it would be two levels.
A second, six-level parking structure would be part of the expansion, which has been in the works for over a year.
The plans have received some pushback from local businesses concerned about the project’s impact on their operations.
A project schedule hasn’t been disclosed, as it still requires city council approval.
City filings indicate that if approved, the center would provide about 100 parking spots more than the 1,137 required, based on proposed uses. It currently provides more than the city-required number of spaces, though visitors might not believe that during the lunch and dinner hours. The city indicated that the owner wants to promote ride-sharing services, valet parking and other parking management plans to provide adequate parking during those periods.
Diamond Development Group is headed by Alethea Hsu, a doctor by trade who got into commercial real estate as a side business with other family members. She lives in Irvine.
The group also owns retail properties in the San Gabriel Valley. Last year, it bought the land underneath Newport Beach Tennis Club as an investment. There have been no reported plans to change the use of the 7.6-acre site near Corona del Mar High School.
The tennis club said in a newsletter this year that monthly dues for many members would be increasing, “because our lease requires us to pay the tax portion on the new value of the land,” which rose tenfold after the sale.
Toll Town
Homebuyers waiting for Toll Brothers Inc. to start cutting prices on its large number of Orange County home projects apparently will have to keep waiting.
“I’d say Orange County is the best submarket” in Southern California for Toll, Chief Executive Doug Yearley said last month on the company’s quarterly earnings call with analysts.
California is the largest market for the country’s largest luxury homebuilder, whose market value is about $6.1 billion. About 27% of its revenue is generated in the state.
Toll has several projects under way in Orange County, including the Orchard Hills development in Irvine, as well as Altair, a gated community being built on the former El Toro Marine base there. Altair opened early this year, an 840-home venture between Toll and Miami-based Lennar Corp.
Toll executives said last month that they’ve sold 78 homes there at an average price of $2.5 million.
