A local commercial real estate investor and developer has unveiled plans for a two-tower commercial development across the street from John Wayne Airport in Irvine.
Irvine-based Great Far East Inc. is in the early stages of entitlement work for a proposed project called The Landmark on seven acres it owns on MacArthur Boulevard near the intersection of Campus Drive.
The project would include a 19-story, 448,200-square-foot office on the south side of the property and a 15-story, 323,415-square-foot hotel with 386 rooms on the northern edge.
A 2,089-space parking structure would also be built, along with 13,665 square feet of retail and restaurant space, according to filings with the Orange County Airport Land Use Commission.
The operator and brand of the four-star quality hotel haven’t been disclosed. It would include 21,445 square feet of meeting and conference space, 5,043 square feet of ground-floor restaurant space, and a fitness center, according to regulatory filings.
The hotel “would be conveniently located within walking distance of John Wayne Airport, office complexes, and corporate headquarters,” according to filings with the city, whose planning commission should take up the project in mid-June.
The 253-foot-high office at The Landmark would be one of the tallest buildings in the immediate vicinity of the airport. It’s one of several large office projects recently proposed for the vicinity, where just one significant project is under construction: Trammell Crow’s two-building Boardwalk development on Jamboree Road.
Great Far East has been working on the Landmark project with Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the New York-based architecture firm that’s designed several of Newport Beach-based Irvine Co.’s local office towers.
Design features of the 880,000-square-foot project include a second-level swimming pool at the U-shaped hotel, plus outdoor space for office tenants about five floors up, according to Pei Cobb’s renderings.
Irvine-based LPA Inc. is associate architect for the project, and Nabih Youssef Associates would serve as structural engineer, according to Pei Cobb’s website.
Great Far East chief executive Sean Cao said last week 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.
Great Far East brought the project before the Airport Land Use Commission last month. Developers of earlier area tower projects were forced to reduce their size due to height concerns for buildings in the flight path of planes using the airport.
In addition to airport-related approvals, The Landmark will also need approval from Irvine’s planning commission.
Great Far East has been working with Irvine-based entitlement firm Starpointe Ventures to get necessary approvals.
Von Karman Sale
The developer bought the site two years ago in a deal reported to be about $35.2 million, according to CoStar Group Inc. records.
The development site, which is on the Colton Plaza office campus, includes two older buildings totaling about 100,000 square feet, a vacant restaurant, and a few acres of land now used as surface parking.
Existing offices hold the headquarters of automobile marketing company Autobytel Inc., among other tenants. The buildings would be razed to make way for the development.
Great Far East has invested in a number of other buildings in Irvine over the past decade, including the nine-story Irvine Spectrum office that holds the operations of restaurant chain Yard House USA Inc.
Its other notable area investments include a four-story building about a block from The Landmark development site on Von Karman Avenue. It sold the 65,000-square-foot building, and excess land that’s expected to hold an apartment development, at 18831 Von Karman Ave. this month for about $24.5 million, according to CoStar records. The buyer is a foreign-backed investor that has bought other entitled development sites in the area from Great Far East.
Great Far East paid about $11.7 million for the office in 2010, property records show.
