A pair of Irvine buildings near John Wayne Airport, including the current headquarters of Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc., is being marketed for sale as the potential site of a 457-unit apartment complex.
The two buildings, located along Main Street and Cartwright Road in the Irvine Business Center, total about 129,000 square feet and are located on about 7.4 acres of land.
The buildings would be razed to make way for a nearly 390,000-square-foot apartment complex running four stories and with more than 800 parking spaces, according to the marketing materials for the site.
The proposed development—dubbed Metropolis—was listed for sale a little more than a month ago, according to brokerage data.
A time frame for the sale, or any apartment-related construction, hasn’t been disclosed.
The site is fully entitled for residential construction, and development “could begin once construction drawings are in hand,” according to marketing materials.
The Irvine office of Holliday Fenoglio Fowler LP has the listing for the property, which is going to market without a set asking price.
Other recent land deals in the area—not to mention the red-hot market for apartment development in Irvine these days—indicate the property could fetch $30 million or more.
Plans
Plans for an apartment or condominium project at the site have been in the works for a few years, but now they appear to be on the fast track following a recent decision by Quantum Fuels to leave one of the buildings in a cost-cutting move.
Quantum, which makes hybrid powertrains for the military and automakers, last month said it planned to shutter its Irvine headquarters, at 17872 Cartwright Road. The building totals about 88,000 square feet, and the largely industrial space was once eyed as the home of a solar panel manufacturing division for the company, which counts a market value of about $30 million.
Quantum never got that high-profile business line off the ground, leaving much of the space underused, according to the company.
Consolidation
The company said last month that it plans to consolidate corporate staff now at the Cartwright location into a 94,000-square-foot Lake Forest facility, and would be looking to sublet the Irvine space.
Quantum’s former chief executive, Alan Niedzwiecki, owns 50% of an entity that’s the primary owner of the building on Cartwright, while longtime Chairman Dale Rasmussen owns 37%, according to regulatory filings.
Niedzwiecki—tapped to lead Quantum nearly a decade ago when it went public—resigned from the company in May. He was replaced by the company’s former finance chief, Brian Olson.
The second building involved in the sale, a 41,130-square-foot warehouse at 2500 Main St., is owned by Irvine-based Sares-Regis Group Inc., which paid a reported $8.5 million for the building in 2005, according to reports.
It’s not known whether Sares-Regis, a commercial developer and owner that has an active multifamily division, is looking to remain involved in the project in any role if the sale is completed as planned.
3rd Apartment Complex
Metropolis would be the third apartment complex to go up in recent years around the two-tower Century Centre office development on Main Street.
The 481-unit Main Street Village apartments, on the other side of Main Street, opened in 2009. The 290-unit Camden Main & Jamboree complex, which opened in 2008, is a block away.
The Metropolis project also is the second apartment project now likely to move ahead soon in the Irvine Business Center on land that currently holds existing industrial buildings.
Chicago-based Equity Residential is moving ahead on a five-story, 190-unit apartment complex at 16931 Millikan Ave., following the city’s recent approval of its plans. The project is at Alton Parkway and Millikan Avenue, across the street from the Diamond Jamboree shopping center.
The site currently holds a 19,000-square-foot industrial building. Equity Residential, one of the country’s largest apartment owners, bought the 2.2-acre property last year for about $6 million, with an eye on converting the site into an apartment development.
Entitlements for the project were approved by Irvine’s Planning Commission on June 21, said Tim Strader Jr., president of Irvine-based development consultant Starpointe Ventures.
The goal now is to break ground on the project in about a year, according to Dustin Smith, development associate for Equity Residential, which has developed a handful of other projects in the IBC.
The site is expected to hold 329 parking spots, and the development will include a rooftop garden, among other features, according to Smith, whose company also has plans moving ahead for a new project in Anaheim.
Equity Residential’s plan for 16931 Millikan would be the latest apartment complex to go up within walking distance of Diamond Jamboree, a popular retail center of shops and restaurants.
AvalonBay Project
Arlington, Va.-based AvalonBay Communities Inc., the second-biggest multifamily housing owner in the country, has a nearby 179-unit project well under way along Jamboree Road, its second complex in the area.
“That area around Diamond Jamboree has really become a new residential community,” said Strader, whose company has handled entitlement work for a bulk of the new residential projects that have gone up in the largely commercial area now known as the IBC. n\
