Invesco Real Estate, the Dallas-based investor behind the development of Anduril Industries’ massive new headquarters in Costa Mesa, has plans for another ambitious redevelopment project next door to the defense upstart’s office campus.
The Hive, a 14.3-acre site along Susan Street that has held the local operations for the Los Angeles Chargers along with other office tenants, may be demolished to make way for 1,050 apartment homes and new stores following an initial green light from the city this month.
Foster City-based Legacy Partners, which counts two other new apartment developments in the area, is partnering with Invesco on the planned development, currently dubbed Hive Live.
It’s among the largest multifamily projects currently in the books for the city.
The proposal comes about two years after the Chargers announced plans to move into a new, nearly 150,000-square-foot office and training facility in El Segundo, not far from SoFi Stadium, where it now plays its home games.
The team leased the OC spot at the Hive creative office campus in 2017, when it was in the process of moving from San Diego. The team’s office space, referred to as a performance center, runs about 101,000 square feet across the street from the city’s Ikea, and has since been put on the market for sublease.
Relocation
The Hive is a three-building, 181,822-square-foot indoor-outdoor creative office campus.
Along with the Chargers, other tenants including Lazy Dog Café, Coding Dojo and the local headquarters for Foster City-based SteelWave LLC.
SteelWave acquired The Hive as a traditional office campus in 2015 for $48 million and spent about $22 million transforming the site into a creative office project that delivered in 2017.
The next year, SteelWave and financial partner Goldman Sachs sold the campus to Invesco for $84 million, records indicate. The campus was 82% leased at the time of sale.
Invesco and SteelWave partnered together for The Press, the redevelopment of the former LA Times printing facility in Costa Mesa spanning 24 acres next door to the Hive. The office campus is now home to Anduril, which moved into the massive facility last year, and continues to build out its operations there.
Along with offices, the Hive counts 51,000 square feet of “highly specialized sports” space used by the football team, including meeting rooms, an auditorium, fitness center, wet rooms with cold tubs and hot tubs, locker rooms and a cafeteria, according to marketing materials from CBRE.
There’s also 160,000 square feet of grass fields at the site, used by the team for practices.
The Chargers are in the process of vacating the property, with new tenants able to take over the spot as early as August 2024, with the sublease running until mid-2028, according to marketing materials.
New Uses
The departure of the Chargers signals a new era for the property.
Invesco and Legacy Partners earlier this month received an initial OK from city leaders to change the site’s zoning from industrial to residential and begin the planning process for a mixed-use redevelopment.
The proposal includes 1,050 rental units across three five-story buildings, along with 2,500 square feet of retail space, 1,575 parking spaces and roughly five acres of open space.
The redevelopment would be done in three phases starting on the vacant practice field and progressing to the north end of the site, replacing the two-story office buildings, according to Legacy’s proposal.
The project aims to address Costa Mesa’s housing goals as dictated by the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), which has in part spurred the conversion of underutilized sites into housing in other cities like Santa Ana and Buena Park.
New housing may also fit the needs of Anduril, which leased the entirety of The Press in early 2021. The lease made Anduril one of Orange County’s largest office tenants.
The new Costa Mesa headquarters is designed to accommodate current and future growth for Anduril.
The Press is expected to ultimately hold about 2,500 employees, with nearby housing likely to serve as a draw for prospective employees and OC residents.
“Hive Live will provide an opportunity to create a true work live environment in North Costa Mesa,” Legacy Partners Senior Managing Director Timothy O’Brien said in city filings.
Costa Mesa Legacy
This project marks the third in the South Coast Metro area for Legacy Partners.
The firm is behind 580 Anton, a 250-unit complex a few blocks from South Coast Plaza that marked the first upscale apartment project in the Costa Mesa arts district area in nearly a decade when it delivered in 2018.
It sold last year to an affiliate of institutional investor Rockwood Capital for $172.2 million, or $689,000 per unit. That deal is the priciest multifamily sale on record for the city.
Legacy Partners recently delivered its second area project, the 226-unit Bloom South Coast situated a few blocks away from 580 Anton, in Santa Ana. Rents for the luxury project, which opened about three months ago, run about $3,800 for a two bedroom unit.
Hive Live will be “highly amenitized,” according to Legacy’s O’Brien, a Costa Mesa native.
These amenities include “expansive workspace areas conducive for a work from home environment,” as well as a café for residents and local employees “immediately adjacent to the community.”
