One of the larger creative office projects proposed for the area around John Wayne Airport is no longer in the works.
The city of Irvine said this month that Pasadena-based Gemdale USA had informed it that plans to build a 275,000-square-foot office project at 2400 Barranca Parkway are no longer being considered.
Gemdale USA, a real estate investor with financial backing from China, in 2019 proposed building a pair of creative offices along Barranca Parkway in Irvine, across the street from the Tustin Legacy development and about a mile from the campus’ Flight office project.
The project would have gone up on a 5-acre site that Gemdale bought in 2017, near the intersection of Barranca Parkway and Von Karman Avenue.
The site currently holds an older, nearly 70,000-square-foot office building, which Gemdale calls R3@Irvine.
Gemdale bought the single-story building for $16.9 million, or nearly $243 per square foot.
Legal Issues
Plans for the project called for a pair of creative office buildings, one five stories and another running six stories, totaling nearly 275,000 square feet.
A seven-story parking structure with about 1,040 spaces was also envisioned.
The project got city initial approvals in 2020, but faced subsequent legal challenges from local businesses, who were concerned about the size of the project and traffic issues.
Changing dynamics in the local office market following the onset of the pandemic, rather than the legal issues, appear to have stopped the development from moving ahead.
The developer “has informed the city that it no longer wishes to proceed with the Gemdale project,” a June 13 city filing indicates.
Gemdale hasn’t disclosed its plans for the building, which brokerage data indicates is largely vacant.
Office Swaps
The change in course adds to a string of scuttled office development projects in the airport area of late.
A nine-story office project long considered near the corner of Von Karman Avenue and Main Street is no longer moving ahead, after the land for the project was sold to a hotel developer for $7.5 million about a month ago.
The site, at 17850 Von Karman, is now expected to hold a new, 172-room Home2Suites project, according to city filings.
Along Jamboree Road, next to The Boardwalk office campus, a 6.2-acre site at 18582 Teller Ave. previously eyed for offices, a hotel and other uses is now being turned into a nearly 137,000-square-foot industrial project, headed by Black Creek Group.
