Irvine Company has identified a pair of sites in Newport Center, including an existing low-rise office park it owns, for apartment projects that could add 800 rental units to the area surrounding Fashion Island.
Both projects, Villas of Fashion Island, located at 1000 San Joaquin Plaza, and Newport Center’s Block 100 are part of Newport Beach’s attempt to meet California’s statewide housing mandates with a combined 800 new apartment units.
The Irvine Co., in a Sept. 9 letter to the city of Newport Beach, identified Villas at Fashion Island for expansion and Block 100 for multifamily housing.
“These two new communities will be planned and designed to build upon the highest standards consistent with all of our properties within Newport Center, which has become the city’s economic core – attracting top businesses, thousands of quality jobs and generating significant revenue for the city,” Kevin Martin, Irvine Co.’s vice president of development, said in a letter to Newport Beach.
Paperwork filed with the city of Newport Beach showed Irvine Co.’s plans are preliminary and could still be adjusted. Newport Beach’s City Council would have to approve final plans before Irvine Co. begins any work.
New Units at Block 100
About 600 apartment units are proposed as part of a new development at 110 Newport Center Drive, which is located just south of Fashion Island. The new development would replace the 141,889-square-foot low-rise Gateway Plaza, a six-building office campus dotted with terraces and patios with ocean views.
Public documents show four apartment buildings would be five floors tall and built over two levels of subterranean parking. The buildings would combine for 575,000 square feet. The company estimated 55 units per acre. The redevelopment project also may entail a 690,977-square-foot parking garage.
The proposed project will have 159,090 square feet of open space, which represents 28% of the total residential area of the community. The community is also planned to have 7,000 square feet of common indoor space, including fitness, co-working and lounge amenities on-site.
Residents, according to public documents, would also have access to dining, entertainment and shopping options, thanks to its location at the corner of Newport Center Drive and Anacapa Drive.
All 600 units would be offered at market rate.
Martin, in his letter to Newport Beach, said the Block 100 project would be designed similarly to Villas of Fashion Island and expand the “standard of quality rental living.”
A few months ago, the Irvine Co., owner of the luxe shopping center and many of the surrounding offices at Newport Center, closed on the purchase of 100 Newport Center Drive, a roughly 17,400-square-foot building. The office building, the one-time home of the Newport Sports Museum but currently vacant, sold for nearly $36.5 million, according to property records.
That works out to nearly $2,100 per square foot. On a per square foot basis, it’s the most ever paid for an OC office larger than 15,000 square feet, according to CoStar records.
100 Newport Center Drive was sold by Iridium Property Investments, a local family office that reports owning more than $100 million in SoCal properties. A redevelopment of the nearly 50-year-old building into a new office had been proposed by the prior owners but never moved ahead.
The building is expected to be part of the redevelopment.
The Villas of Fashion Island Expansion
The Irvine Co., according to public documents, proposes to add a 200-unit residential apartment building to the Villas, located north of Fashion Island. The 200 units would replace an existing parking structure as part of the city’s larger goal to add 2,439 units in the Newport Center area.
Irvine Co. plans to redevelop the parking garage into a five-floor, single-building apartment project with 156,140 square feet of residential space and two levels of underground parking.
The 200 added units would be available for rent at market rates, according to public documents.
Villas of Fashion Island, which currently has 524 apartments, would feature 724 units once the expansion is complete. The added building would not exceed 65 feet in height and could provide more than 1,600 parking spaces for residents and guests for the combined 724-unit project.
Nearly 210,000 square feet of open space would also be included within the overall project.
Beyond Newport: New Housing in OC
Newport Beach, like other California cities, is under pressure from state officials to increase housing. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has set a goal to build 2.5 million new housing units by 2030, saying it will reduce home prices and create more choices.
The state legislature has imposed a series of laws dictating how many units each city must build. Cities that don’t meet the mandates can be fined, lose the power to control their own zoning or be sent into a court receivership and have decisions made for them.
The Business Journal, in the Dec.16th issue, reported how the Irvine Co. is considering redeveloping a portion of the 18.7-acre office campus at MacArthur Court near John Wayne Airport into 700 residential units. Newport Beach city documents show the redevelopment plan would replace 107,000 square feet of office space at 4665 and 4685 MacArthur Court with 700 apartment units.
The project, according to city documents, would add two five-story residential buildings, totaling 677,900 square feet, built around a five-and-a-half level parking structure.
New multifamily developments continue to be completed or are nearing completion in several Orange County markets, per a Kidder Matthews published in November.
At least four multifamily developments are slated to be completed in the Irvine and Tustin area at some point in 2025: the 1,261-unit Colonnade at The Marketplace; the 1,100-unit 88 Pacifica at Irvine Spectrum; the 876-unit Volar at Irvine Business Complex; and the 371-unit The Pistoia at Irvine Business Complex.
Recently completed multifamily projects include the 1,100-unit The Row at Red Hill in Santa Ana, the 406-unit Link OC in North Anaheim, the 315-unit Zia Apartments in South Anaheim and the 309-unit Hanover Laguna Niguel in South Orange County.
All eight developments total 5,738 apartment units.
