Projects, developments and other activity in cities in and around OC.
LAGUNA HILLS
Construction work is planned for the Taj-Mahal Office Building on El Toro Road and Paseo de Valencia. The building is set to undergo renovations to make it a medical office building. Construction crews plan to add handicap ramps to the front of the building, reconfigure the underground loading docks for easier pedestrian access and build a canopy over the entrance. The parking lot also will have more spaces and new lights. Other cosmetic changes include landscaping and a sign that will display the new name of the complex: the Taj Medical Center. The project is expected to take about 18 months to complete. Construction costs are estimated at more than $2 million. Irvine-based K2 General Contractors Inc. is the contractor. Los Angeles-based Nadel Inc. is the architect. The building is owned by Muller Co. in Laguna Hills.
IRVINE
The last of the operating rooms almost are finished at Hoag Hospital Irvine on Sand Canyon Avenue east of the San Diego (I-405) Freeway. Construction crews are putting the finishing touches on the building, which reopened in September after being bought by Newport Beach’s Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian and renovated for 18 months. Roel Construction is finishing up 13,000 square feet of operating rooms and post-anesthesia care units. The last of the construction is set to finish by the end of the year. Roel also worked on the hospital’s atrium, elevators and gift shop. The renovation cost about $84 million and involved multiple contractors and architects.
The University of California, Irvine broke ground on an ophthalmology center at the university’s school of medicine. The Gavin Herbert Eye Institute is set to occupy 60,000 square feet on the corner of Bison Avenue and Health Sciences Road. It’s set to have exam rooms, an outpatient surgery center, an optical shop and office space. Research will be conducted nearby at Hewitt Hall. Construction is expected to begin by March and the center is set to open in early 2013. It will cost about $31 million. Two-thirds of the funding is from UC Irvine, with the rest donated by former Allergan Inc. chief executive Gavin Herbert and his mother, Josephine Gleis. The school has not yet selected a contractor or architect.
COSTA MESA
Renovation of a Vons shopping plaza is under way on 17th Street and Newport Boulevard. Crews are installing underground utility lines to prepare for the project, which calls for an expansion of the supermarket and a new five-tenant building next door. After construction is complete, the Vons will be about 43,000 square feet, an increase of 13,000 square feet. The expansion displaced a few nearby shops, most notably the historic Omelette Parlor. The project also will include new facades for the two remaining shops in the plaza, a Baja Fresh Mexican Grill and a CVS Pharmacy. Construction began in mid-July and is expected to wrap up next spring. The architect is North Carolina’s Little Diversified Architectural Consulting. The contractor is Chino-based Savant Con- struction Inc. The plaza is owned by Pleasanton-based Safeway Inc., parent company of Vons.
ORANGE
Construction is progressing on a humanities building at Santiago Canyon College, with crews pouring concrete for the foundation. The plan calls for a three-story, 80,000-square-foot building at Jamboree and Santiago Canyon roads. The building will have about 50 classrooms and a lecture hall with 200 seats. It also will be the site of the campus writing center and language lab. Construction began in May and is scheduled to finish in early 2012. The project is being paid for with money from a Measure E bond issued by the Rancho Santiago Community College District. The money also will pay for construction of an athletic center and parking lot improvements. Pennsylvania’s Gary E. Cecil Construction Management Services will oversee 17 subcontractors involved in the project. Irvine-based LPA Architects Inc. will design the humanities building. Ohio’s Austin Co. will design the athletic center.
CORRECTION
The Nov. 8 column should have said the Glendale office of Colorado’s PCL Construction Enterprises Inc. is building a five-building dormitory complex at California State University, Fullerton. The project is designed by San Jose’s Steinberg Architects.
