Kevin Hayes, the head of Lincoln Property Co.’s sizeable Orange County operations, has left the Dallas-based real estate investor and developer to start his own firm.
Hayes late last month launched Pendulum Property Partners, an Irvine-based real estate company that plans to buy, manage and develop local commercial properties.
Pendulum will focus initially on office and retail projects, Hayes said.
“The plan is to acquire, and potentially build, good product in Southern California.”
Pendulum has a couple of potential deals in the pipeline, but nothing has been finalized, Hayes said.
Joining him at the new venture are Brian Walker, managing partner of Lotus Real Estate Partners in Irvine and a former executive at Newport Beach-based CT Realty Investors, as well as Courtney Parks, who had run the property and construction management division for Lincoln’s OC office.
The new company plans to add a few more positions, including an asset manager, according to Hayes.
Pendulum Property expects to work with equity partners that have worked with Lincoln Property in past area deals, Hayes said.
Past financial partners in area deals with Lincoln include Morgan Stanley and Angelo Gordon & Co.
The response from investors so far “has been incredible,” he said.
Hayes worked at Lincoln Property for nearly nine years, acting as executive vice president for the company’s Irvine office, which has grown to nearly 30 people and 6 million square feet of commercial space under its management.
The company made its mark as an opportunistic investor in OC’s office market following the recession, flipping several notable properties—such as Griffin Towers in Santa Ana and the One Pacific Plaza complex in Huntington Beach—for big profits. More recently it had turned its attention toward more stable assets, as well as redevelopment opportunities and ground-up projects.
Notable projects Lincoln currently has in the works include Flight, the creative-office development project planned for a 38.7-acre portion of Tustin’s former Marine base, as well as Trade, a shopping center on Michelson Drive near John Wayne Airport that’s being converted into a food hall and other retail uses.
Hayes said he still has a financial stake in several deals he worked on at Lincoln Property, including Flight, and will continue to work with them on a short-term basis.
In the case of Flight, which would be Orange County’s largest-ever ground-up creative-office project, “I plan to see it get out of the ground,” Hayes said.
The first phase of construction at Flight, running about 18.7 acres at the intersection of Barranca Parkway and Armstrong Avenue, will have close to 400,000 square feet of office space, plus a 12,000-square-foot food hall.
Future phases will result in up to 860,000 square feet of creative-office space and other uses built on the 38.7-acre Tustin site.
Flight initially was scheduled to break ground early this year. Tweaks to the development’s architecture, building sizes and other aspects of the project—including the finalization of a development agreement with the city—have kept construction from moving ahead.
Filings with Tustin’s city council show that negotiations between the city and Lincoln Property are ongoing, with closed-door hearings in June involving the price of the land and terms of payment.
Hayes said he expects the agreement to be finalized by September.
“I still think it’s coming out of the ground by the end of the year.”
Lincoln Property senior vice president Parke Miller is now heading up the company’s Irvine office, while Matt Howell, a vice president in Lincoln’s Los Angeles office, is overseeing the Tustin development.
