Irvine’s Camphor Partners is hitting the reset button, at least temporarily, for a site that’s been slated to hold one of the more ambitious high-rise mixed-use properties near John Wayne Airport.
The real estate investor and developer, which previously operated under the Great Far East Inc. name, in 2015 paid a reported $35.2 million for a 7-acre site along MacArthur Boulevard that was then called the Colton Plaza office campus.
The 18872 MacArthur Boulevard site, across the street from the airport, included two older, four-story buildings totaling about 100,000 square feet. Tenants at the time of the sale included automobile marketing company Autobytel Inc., among others.
Soon after buying the site, Camphor set upon revamping the site into a two-tower commercial development.
Dubbed Landmark, the site, holding a large amount of surface parking in addition to the two offices and a restaurant, was envisioned to hold two 15-story towers, a 420,000-square-foot office building, and the other a 386-key hotel with 15,000 square feet of retail.
If built, Landmark would be one of the tallest buildings in the immediate vicinity of the airport. A hotel operator for the proposed project wasn’t disclosed.
The development got city approvals in 2017. Around that time, Camphor chief investment officer Sean Cao expressed caution about starting the project in the near-term, given that the real estate market cycles were likely to head downwards.
Cao told the Business Journal at the time that the project could be built in about three years, depending on market conditions and if the office could get a fair amount of pre-leasing done before breaking ground.
CAVU Unveiled
The site is now getting office tenants, but not under the Landmark proposal.
Late last month, brokers with the local office of Newmark said they had started leasing again for the existing four-story buildings at the site, which are getting a number of upgrades to make them attractive to tenants looking to bring back workers to the office.
The properties are undergoing a “complete renovation to include new mechanical systems, elevator cabs, landscaping, enclosed lobby and common areas,” according to Newmark.
The renovations will also include the addition of “highly creative, move-in-ready spec suites with glass windows to offer natural lighting,” according to Newmark.
The office complex is now called CAVU Business Park, short for Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited.
The CAVU name is based on an aviation term denoting the ideal flight condition for pilots and is a nod to the project’s proximity to John Wayne Airport, according to Newmark.
Twinsteps Architecture is the first new tenant announced at CAVU; the firm, which had been based in the Irvine Spectrum, is leasing 6,000 square feet there.
Newmark Managing Directors Richard Sung and Andrew Robben and Associate Daniel Nabavi represented Camphor Partners in the lease. JLL’s Scott Wetzel represented Twinsteps.
CoStar Group Inc. records indicate asking monthly lease rates at CAVU run in the $2.95 per-square -foot range.
Anaheim Flip
Camphor officials haven’t commented on whether plans for Landmark are still being considered, but it’s no stranger to tweaking ambitious development plans at sites it owns.
In July, a venture that the Irvine group was affiliated with sold the former LT Platinum site next to Angel Stadium in Anaheim for a reported $43.1 million, or about $3.1 million per acre.
The deal marks a premium over the prior 2019 sale of the Platinum Triangle site, when the Camphor-related venture paid about $32 million, or $2.3 million per acre, for the site from Hong Kong-based LT Commercial Real Estate Ltd.
Property records indicate the new owners are a venture between Newport Beach-based EBS Realty Partners and Connecticut-based Penwood Real Estate Investment Management.
LT Commercial had envisioned a high-rise hotel, upscale residences and a bevy of retail at the site along the intersection of State College Boulevard and Orangewood Avenue.
After the Camphor venture took over the site, at 2030 S. State College Blvd., from LT Commercial in 2019, it reworked the high-rise aspects of the project into more practical uses, with mid-rise apartments taking the place of high-rises.
The site’s scope is expected to be reworked further under the new ownership group.
