A Newport Beach-based homebuilder is planning the first dedicated for-sale housing project in Anaheim’s Platinum Triangle district in nearly a decade.
Trumark Homes, a unit of Danville-based developer Trumark Cos., is working with the city of Anaheim to get approvals for a 153-unit condominium project on South Lewis Street, which is just north of Katella Avenue.
The development would replace a trio of smaller industrial properties that total about 79,000 square feet on the 7.4-acre site at 1700 S. Lewis St.
The builder is in escrow to buy the site from an affiliate of OmniDuct Systems, a commercial heating, ventilation and air conditioning company that currently occupies the buildings on the site.
OmniDuct is planning to relocate to a new facility in the vicinity but hasn’t settled on a location, according to city officials.
Financial terms of the land sale have not been disclosed.
Trumark’s project, a few blocks east of the Santa Ana (5) Freeway, could break ground in the first quarter of next year if the builder gets the necessary approvals, according to Eric Nelson, vice president of land development for Trumark Homes.
Plans for the project were filed with the city around the start of the year; Anaheim’s planning commission is tentatively scheduled to review the project in mid-2016.
Initial plans call for Trumark to build 153 attached condos from 1,569 square feet to 2,094 square feet, according to city documents.
The four-story condos, as currently planned, would have rooftop decks, and the project would include a pool, spa and small park. Irvine’s KTYG Group Inc. is the architect for the project.
Pricing hasn’t been finalized yet, Nelson said. The project should appeal to apartment renters in the area who are looking to buy a home, as well as young professionals who are first-time buyers, he said.
The development marks a shift in product types proposed for the Platinum Triangle, the 820-acre largely commercial area that surrounds the city’s baseball stadium.
The area has been a haven for apartment development over the past decade, with little else breaking ground in that time.
More than 2,000 rental units—primarily midrise apartments—have been built in the area over the past 10 years, and another 1,400 are now under construction, according to city records.
Several thousand more apartments could break ground in the next few years, including large projects headed up by Miami-based Lennar Corp.; JPI/TDI Cos. of Irving, Texas; and LT Commercial, an L.A.-based affiliate of Hong Kong-based LT Commercial Real Estate Ltd.
The last for-sale project to be built in the Platinum Triangle was the 390-unit Stadium Lofts project at 1801 E. Katella Ave., which was completed in 2007, just prior to the last housing crash.
Some projects once eyed as for-sale condos were converted to rental developments during the recession, while others were scrapped altogether.
Now “the market is ready” for for-sale housing, Nelson said, citing improving housing conditions and the recent surge in new development plans in the Platinum Triangle.
“This marks a time in the Triangle that the (area) has enough traction,” he said.
A few other developers in the area, including LT Commercial, are planning to incorporate for-sale condos as part of larger mixed-use projects, although none of those Platinum Triangle projects have broken ground yet.
Trumark’s project is the only proposed project in the area that would include only for-sale housing.
Its development site is an area seeing a heavy amount of apartment construction. It’s next to the Katella Grand, a 399-unit rental project on Katella Avenue that’s a venture between Wolff Co. of Scottsdale, Ariz. and Highlands Ranch, Colo.-based UDR Inc. The estimated $100 million development is scheduled to open in the early part of this year.
Trumark also has an infill-project moving ahead in Costa Mesa called Upcoast and is working on a 110-unit mixed-use project on Harbor Boulevard in Santa Ana.
