One of the more unique areas envisioned for FivePoint Holdings LLC’s Great Park Neighborhoods development has gotten a step closer to reality.
The Irvine-based developer (NYSE: FPH) recently got the green light from Irvine’s planning commission for a new phase of development, which is tentatively called FivePoint X.
The 58-acre site where the project is located is within walking distance of some of the sports parks facilities at the adjacent Orange County Great Park.
The new addition to the neighborhood is expected to bring some 425,000 square feet of “mixed-commercial” uses, including a 180-key hotel, plus a variety of food and retail options alongside new homes.
The site will be “Old World” in design: mixed-use buildings with homes and apartments stacked on top of restaurants and boutiques, which will be situated on pedestrian-friendly streets and alleys.
FivePoint is also planning a small incubator of sorts for restaurants, with a cluster of converted shipping containers serving as 2,000-square-foot pop-up locations for vendors.
“We will partner with small operators, and if the community embraces them, they will become permanent,” Emile Haddad, FivePoint’s chief executive, told the Business Journal late last month.
Don’t expect the project to include retailers seen at the nearby Spectrum Center mall.
“I don’t want to compete with the Spectrum. We will fill a niche that they don’t,” Haddad said.
“We are creating something new and different, with options for everybody.”
This means unique restaurant and retail offerings. An example of an operator that Haddad has been in talks with is a French patisserie, started by a couple that recently moved to the states from France.
“It’s so hard to find good French pastries here, and this is the best one I’ve tried,” said Haddad.
Bridging the Gap
The site of FivePoint X runs near the southern edge of the Great Park Neighborhoods development, where more than 10,000 homes have been entitled, with about half either built or in the process of being developed.
It’s not far from another development site for the master developer, which is planning new sporting additions to the Orange County Great Park.
It recently got approvals from the city to fund another batch of work at the 688-acre park, where it will oversee construction of the future home to USA Water Polo, and a neighboring field house that will have basketball and volleyball courts. An expansive parking garage is also planned for the section of the park, which is currently home to the ice skating facility.
For more on those plans, see last week’s print edition of the Business Journal.
