The first phase of Great Park Sports Park already appears to be paying dividends, in revenue earmarked for the city of Irvine next year.
Aliso Viejo-based developer Five Point Communities Management Inc. gave a media briefing this month on progress it’s made at the 175-acre sports park, which is part of a 688-acre chunk of land at Orange County Great Park that it’s developing in partnership with the city.
Five Point said it’s spending about $250 million of its own money to build the sports park, which amounts to $75 million more than what it is required to spend under an agreement it made with the city in 2013 to get the project moving ahead after years of delays.
The master developer, which is in charge of building thousands of homes on land it owns surrounding the city-owned park land, framed the briefing under the slogan “delivered as promised,” showing off a flurry of construction work that’s taken place at the sports park in recent months.
The 53-acre first phase of the sports park is scheduled to be finished by year-end, except for a 26,000-square-foot, 2,500-seat soccer stadium that Five Point plans to open next year.
Six other soccer fields, 25 tennis courts, five sand volleyball courts, and a playground are scheduled to open by the end of this year. The tennis and volleyball facilities, which like the soccer facilities, will have lighting for night use and also include “championship venues” with dedicated seating.
“We are on schedule,” said Five Point Chief Executive Emile Haddad at the event. “Good things are happening.”
The city already is planning to put the facilities to use for a profit. Recent city filings show that tennis programs slated for the facilities should bring in $589,000 in revenue next fiscal year, with expenditures of $376,200.
“With an active tennis community in Irvine, it is anticipated that high demand for tennis programs will develop at the Sports Complex,” city filings said.
The city hasn’t disclosed budget projections for the other sports facilities.
Fees slated for the complex appear likely to provide a boost to one line of revenue at OC Great Park.
The city had projected just $771,000 in Great Park revenue derived from “program and service fees” in its current fiscal year’s budget, according to city documents.
The biggest source of revenue to public coffers from Great Park is Mello-Roos taxes paid by homeowners at Five Point’s nearby Pavilion Park and Beacon Park housing communities—an estimated $9.8 million this fiscal year.
Five Point’s $250 million investment in the sports facility doesn’t appear to be hurting its valuation, which financial statements show recently got a big lift.
Miami-based homebuilder Lennar Corp., one of the investors in Five Point and its associated developments in the state, said in its latest quarterly report that the assets in the Five Point venture totaled about $2.2 billion at the end of August. That’s up from $1.1 billion in the prior quarter, according to Lennar, which has a $254 million investment in Five Point, according to the homebuilder’s latest earnings report. The report didn’t disclose a reason for the big increase.
The equity in the Five Point venture now stands at $1.5 billion, up from $959 million a quarter ago, according to Lennar.
The Five Point venture has about $65 million in debt, all of it held by Lennar.
Hollywood Homes
An investment fund run by Newport Beach-based KBS Realty Advisors is part of a venture that’s buying a 292-unit apartment building in North Hollywood.
KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT is under contract to buy the Lofts at NoHo Commons, a rental complex at 11136 Chandler Blvd. about a mile north of the Ventura (101) Freeway.
The venture is paying $102.5 million, or $351,027 per unit, and the KBS affiliate is taking a 90% equity stake. Noho Commons Pacific Investors is listed in regulatory documents as its partner in the deal.
The complex is being sold by a partnership of Rockwood Capital and Redwood Partners that paid a reported $92.5 million for it in 2007.
