Land at Irvine’s Great Park Neighborhoods remains a moneymaker for FivePoint Holdings (NYSE: PPH). The master developer said it recently completed the sale of 372 homesites on 32.2 acres of land it owns at the massive former El Toro Marine base for $309.3M; see page 12 for more.
That works out to a sky-high price of $9.6M an acre, and over $800K per homesite.
Developable land in Irvine rarely trades for more than $5M an acre, or $500K a homesite.
Property records indicate that luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers was the buyer. Toll (NYSE: TOL), a frequent partner of FivePoint, a week ago opened a pair of models elsewhere at Great Park Neighborhoods, with starting prices around $3M.
Given rising land prices for homes, no wonder FivePoint CEO Dan Hedigan said his firm is planning to repurpose undeveloped commercial land it has in Irvine for residential use.
FivePoint’s land at the new, 15,000-acre Valencia master development in Santa Clarita is expected to be increasingly in demand, as Los Angeles County rebounds from last month’s wildfire damage.
The fires “will only exacerbate the undersupply in Southern California as displaced residents look for alternative housing options,” CEO Dan Hedigan told analysts late last month.
FivePoint, whose stock popped late last month, said it’s also looking to add new land opportunities beyond what it has in Irvine, LA and San Francisco. Former CEO and current Chairman Emeritus Emile Haddad has been tapped to assist with that work. See page 12 for more.
OC’s apartment market continues to be a source of investment for Irvine Company; the state’s largest owner of rental properties has eyes on numerous spots in Newport Beach, including existing office projects it owns near its HQ in Newport Center as well as near John Wayne Airport, for new rental projects that could bring hundreds of new units to that city.
It’s also looking to expand its rental base in Tustin. City records indicate Irvine Co. is in talks to build another 1,336 rental projects at Tustin Legacy, not far from other large apartment complexes it has in the immediate area.
Nearby at The District shopping center, a two-phased, 800-unit residential project has been proposed on land that now holds a PetSmart and other stores. If it moves ahead, it would be the first housing project at The District, which opened in 2007 and is OC’s 5th largest shopping center by taxable sales. A developer for the project hasn’t been disclosed.
The REIT owner of the trophy Michelson tower, located a mile from John Wayne Airport, last month dropped its estimated valuation of the 19-story building to $219.5M, or roughly $409 per square foot. At its pre-pandemic peak, the Michelson was valued at $345M, or $645 PSF, making it the most valuable office tower in Irvine.
Is that depressed valuation still too high? A nearby office at the Von Karman Towers complex just traded for $158 PSF; see Parimal Rohit’s story on this page for more.
