Multi-billionaire Ernest Garcia II, the owner of DriveTime, and a large shareholder of fellow Arizona-based used car business Carvana (NYSE: CVNA), has made the past few editions of our annual OC’s Wealthiest (and topped our 2021 edition with a valuation topping $18B) due to having a secondary residence in Crystal Cove.
His son, Carvana CEO Ernest Garcia III, wasn’t known to have any ties to the area, but that appears to have changed.
An LLC tied to a Tempe-based family trust overseen by the younger Garcia recently closed on the purchase of the Racquet Club of Irvine, property records indicate.
Records show that Garcia paid the property’s long-time owners, the Spearman family, nearly $6.3M for the site just off Culver Avenue, which counts a collection of tennis and pickleball courts, among other amenities.
The site’s been eyed by developers for residential construction over the years, though locals to date have been successful staving off the closure of the club for other uses. There’s been no public announcements yet about the new owner’s plans for the site.
The Irvine Co. continues to defy conventional wisdom with heavy investments in its office towers; see the front-page story from our new real estate reporter, Parimal Rohit, on the landlord’s heavy spending for a skyscraper in Chicago, coming on the heels of a major investment into its largest office tower, NY’s MetLife Building.
The investments appear to be paying off. The landlord’s portfolio, which tops 54M SF, is reported to be over 90% occupied, some 10% over the national norm.
Irvine Co. isn’t putting money into all its high-rises; in April, we reported on the state’s largest office owner putting San Diego’s Symphony Towers on the market. The sale would be a rarity for the owner. The 34-story office is one of six high-rises Irvine Co. owns in downtown San Diego.
Sources tell the Business Journal a deal to sell the office is close to being completed and that the expected buyer is from OC. Keep an eye on our next edition for more.
Thriller author and noted luxe home flipper Dean Koontz is the best-known writer in the Shady Canyon area, but the husband-wife duo of Ransom Riggs and Tahereh Mafi, each with NY Times best-sellers to their name, know high-end homes too. Their Irvine home was featured in Architectural Digest a few years ago.
Riggs, best-known for Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, told the crowd at a recent book-signing for the first entry in his new Sunderworld fantasy series that Irvine’s peaceful vibes help the two writers focus on their work.
If some weirdness is needed, LA isn’t that far of a drive away, quipped Mafi, who moderated the Aug. 26 event at the District’s Barnes & Noble.
Irvine has its quirks if you know where to look, said Riggs, who said he recently came across the grave for Frasier the Sensuous Lion, a one-time star of Irvine’s now-defunct Lion Country Safari.
