NEWPORT BEACH — Irvine Co. is exploring plans for what appears to be its largest-ever office-to-residential redevelopment project, at the site of an office park it owns in Silicon Valley.
The Newport Beach-based real estate firm—which is both the largest apartment owner in the state with a portfolio topping 65,000 rental units, and California’s largest owner of high-end offices, with some 50 million square feet of workspace to its name here—in February filed preliminary plans to convert its Santa Clara Park office complex in the northern part of the city into an apartment project.
The nearly 26-acre site, in the Freedom Circle area of Santa Clara, next to Highway 101, currently holds 12 low-rise buildings totaling 427,500 square feet.
Those buildings, built several decades ago, would be demolished to make way for 1,792 rental units, in a new project running about 1.7 million square feet, records indicate.
A time frame for the project moving ahead hasn’t been disclosed, and Irvine Co. still lists office space as being available for rent on its website.
“We look forward to partnering with the city and community to deliver on this vision to create homes near jobs for local professionals,” Carlene Matchniff, Irvine Co. vice president, said in a statement provided to the Business Journal.
$137M Office Buy
Irvine Co. paid Foster City-based Legacy Partners about $137 million, or $320 per square foot, for the office complex—then called Tech Park at Freedom Circle—near the start of 2015.
At the time of the acquisition, a conversion of the site into housing was already under consideration, sources tell the Business Journal.
Santa Clara Park is one of four office parks Irvine Co. owns in the city of Santa Clara, and the website for the developer’s office division indicates that rents there are the lowest of the four, with monthly rates in the $2.85 per-square-foot range.
Other, newer offices Irvine Co. has elsewhere in the city count monthly asking rents upward of $4.75 per square foot.
“Flexible lease terms and move-in ready R&D spaces offer exceptional business value,” according to the website for the property.
Irvine Co. currently has a pair of apartment complexes nearby in Santa Clara. Rents for both start around $3,000 a month for smaller units.
Elsewhere in Northern California, Irvine Co. owns office parks in Milpitas, Mountain View, San Jose and Sunnyvale. The landlord’s offices in the Silicon Valley area are nearly full, sources indicate.
Its apartment portfolio in that region includes properties in Cupertino—including a complex next to Apple’s headquarters—as well as Redwood City, San Jose and Sunnyvale.
Revenue Leader
Irvine Co.’s apartment division is now the privately held company’s largest source of revenue.
The Business Journal estimates that its portfolio likely brings in over $2.3 billion in rents annually, assuming an average monthly rent per unit of $3,000, which is on the low end of averages for higher-end properties in Orange County.
Irvine Co. has continued to keep up a busy development docket, especially in Orange County, where its largest base of rentals is located.
Several of those new projects are going up at sites not initially designed for apartments.
At the Irvine Market Place, a 1,261-unit development geared toward young professionals and essential workers is under construction, taking the place of about 200,000 square feet of retail space at Orange County’s fourth-largest shopping center by taxable sales.
The company also has plans for over 2,000 new rentals in and around the Irvine Spectrum, at vacant parcels it owns that were once considered for offices.
At UCI Research Park, Irvine Co. has begun the planning process for a new, 1,200-unit complex, its first multifamily development at the sprawling office campus it owns.
The rentals would go up on a vacant parcel previously considered for a large life science-focused office development. The project is expected to be reviewed by Irvine City Council in early 2025. The first few units may be ready for move in by 2027, officials said about two months ago.
“From a master planning perspective, UCI Research Park is an ideal location for new housing, [being] just steps from thousands of high-tech jobs and a top-ranked research university,” Irvine Co. Senior Vice President Jeff Davis said around the start of 2024, when the project’s plans were announced.
