One of the few infill residential development sites in the Irvine Business Complex that’s slated for for-sale homes has been sold to a Seattle-based builder.
An affiliate of Intracorp Companies, a privately held residential developer with a Newport Beach office, recently completed the purchase of the Irvine Gateway development site on Von Karman Avenue.
The 3.4-acre site—about 2.5 miles from John Wayne Airport and near the intersection with Alton Parkway—is entitled for 71 townhomes.
The three-story townhomes will range from 1,161 square feet for two-bedroom units to 1,952 square feet for four-bedroom units, according to marketing materials from the Irvine office of brokerage Land Advisors Organization.
Intracorp bought the Irvine site from Fairfield Residential Co. in San Diego.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed; property records suggest the land sold for about $17.5 million, or nearly $250,000 per lot.
Fairfield bought the land in 2015, along with an adjoining 5.7-acre site that will hold a 363-unit apartment complex tentatively called Rize Irvine.
Fairfield paid a reported $26 million for the entire 9.1-acre site, which had been owned by Los Angeles-based Kilroy Realty Corp.
The property—like many IBC sites being turned into residential projects—previously held an industrial building. It held a longtime facility of Delphi Connection Systems that was demolished in 2011 in anticipation of residential development.
Fairfield remains in charge of the Rize apartment development site, which has seen a heavy amount of construction work in recent months.
Marketing materials from Fairfield place an August opening for its five-story rental project, which will hold a mix of one-, two-, and three-unit apartments.
The Irvine Gateway project is further behind in site work than the apartment complex development, and likely would not be open for sales for another year or so.
Apartment Town
Intracorp’s for-sale project at Irvine Gateway would be a rarity for development in the IBC, the 2,800-acre area around John Wayne Airport that’s seeing a slew of former commercial spaces redeveloped into residential projects.
There were more than 2,100 residential units under construction in the IBC as of October, not counting the former Kilroy site, according to Irvine city records.
All of the projects, as well as a bulk of the thousands of residential units built in the area over the past five years, were rentals.
Brokers representing Fairfield in the sale to Intracorp say for-sale projects in the IBC are in demand again.
Irvine “has limited land available to develop and/or expand new residential projects. This project will create supply to help meet the high housing demand from prospective new home buyers in Orange County,” said Allison Rawlins Tift, vice president at Land Advisors.
Tift represented Fairfield in the sale to Intracorp, along with colleagues Mike Hunter and Randy Coe.
Intracorp’s project would be the first project that incorporates for-sale homes in the IBC since the massive Central Park West development resumed construction a few years ago.
Grading is now under way for a set of homes at Central Park West, which is just off the San Diego (405) Freeway next to Jamboree Road.
Intracorp isn’t actively selling other projects in Orange County but is involved in at least one other development project in the area.
It’s heading up development work for a 140-unit condominium complex called Vintage in Tustin’s Old Town district.
The project, which would replace an industrial park on a seven-acre site along the Santa Ana (5) Freeway, could break ground by the spring after getting city approval late last year.
