LBA Realty is switching up and scaling back development plans for 2722 Michelson, a prominent industrial building it owns in Irvine a few blocks from John Wayne Airport.
A creative-office redevelopment of the single-story building is now in early stages of work, sources tell the Business Journal.
The plans represent a big shift in strategy for privately held LBA. The Irvine-based real estate investor and developer previously considered a much larger ground-up development on the 9.4-acre site.
It bought the roughly 155,000-square-foot building at the corner of Jamboree Road and Michelson Drive about three years ago. City documents show the corner is the busiest intersection in Irvine.
The building previously served as a manufacturing and office property for apparel company St. John Knits International Inc.
St. John Knits vacated it about five years ago. More recently apparel maker Obey Clothing used the building for warehouse space, but the site’s now vacant, and as of a few weeks ago, fenced off.
The Business Journal two years ago was first to report on LBA’s plans for a major revamp. It proposed in city filings to replace the building with a 10-building mixed-use campus of more than 400,000 square feet.
Two five-story offices totaling about 230,000 square feet made up the largest component of the project, which also would’ve featured a hotel and retail uses. The project has yet to get city approval, though, and real estate sources tell the Business Journal that the ambitious plan is no longer an LBA priority.
Company executives could not be reached to comment on the change in plans.
Creative Revamp
Instead, LBA is embarking on a slimmed-down redevelopment at the site, where fences were erected a few weeks ago. Early-stage construction work on the building’s exterior is under way.
The plan is to turn the site into a “next generation” creative-office project featuring “significant natural light as well as new indoor/outdoor collaborative spaces,” according to marketing materials recently prepared for the property.
The site will include two suites for lease offering large, open floor spaces for tenants. The largest block would be about 100,000 square feet. It will also include 10,000 square feet of outdoor amenities, according to marketing material from the Irvine office of Cushman & Wakefield, whose Bob Thagard and John Griffin have the project’s listing.
LPA is the architect for the redesigned project, according to Cushman. No tenants have been announced.
The building under construction at 2722 Michelson is catty-corner to Park Place, the sprawling 105-acre mixed-use campus, a large portion of which LBA runs.
The Business Journal was first to report on the latest notable area company, mobile accessories maker Incipio Group, signing a lease to move to one of the LBA-run Park Place buildings, 3347 Michelson. The lease is for about 70,000 square feet. Incipio plans to move into the space around the end of the year.
The 2722 Michelson building is on the same block as the newest major office project in the airport area, Trammell Crow’s Boardwalk office development, which is close to opening.
Boardwalk’s two nine-story buildings are connected by a series of covered and uncovered bridges and encompass 545,000 square feet. It’s the largest speculative office built in the airport area in over a decade.
LBA has proposed a ground-up development of its own, a six-story office at Park Place of 184,000 square feet.
The office at 3181 Michelson would sit alongside the San Diego (405) Freeway near the intersection of Jamboree Road and Michelson Drive.
A project time frame hasn’t been disclosed. It would likely require an anchor tenant signing before construction starts, according to sources.
