Apartment-entitled land in Irvine is worth about $2.95 million per acre, according to a recent appraisal of Spectrum-area land expected to hold a pair of multifamily projects built by Newport Beach-based Irvine Company.
Menifee-based Gary L. Vogt & Associates recently completed an appraisal of two empty parcels in the Spectrum: a 13.1-acre site at the northwest corner of Alton Parkway and Irvine Center Drive, and a 10.6-acre site a few blocks away at the southwestern corner of Pacifica and Alton. Irvine Co. is seeking city approval to build 1,340 apartments in a pair of projects on the sites.
The projects would have a design and look similar to Irvine Co.’s nearby Village and Park apartment complexes at the Spectrum.
Those two recently built projects, each of which have seen strong levels of leasing, will hold a total of about 3,000 apartments after the last phase of the Park is completed.
Each of the two new projects would hold four, four-story buildings with central courtyards and below-ground parking.
Apartments would range from 674-square-foot lofts to 1,245-square-foot two-bedrooms.
The appraisal, completed in June and included with planning commission documents filed in late August, was done on behalf of the city and Irvine Co. to calculate appropriate park fees and credits for the site.
The appraisal effectively puts a nearly $70 million value on the two Irvine Co. land parcels. That works out to nearly $54,000 per apartment unit planned at the two projects.
The comparable property closest in value to the Spectrum sites—on a per-apartment basis—is a Costa Mesa site near the Triangle shopping center, where a 113-unit apartment project called Pacifica at Newport Plaza is planned.
The 2.5-acre Costa Mesa land parcel sold for about $54,000 per unit last year, according to the appraisal.
The report noted the percentage of rental households in Orange County now approaches 41%, the highest total since 2002. Just under half of all housing units are renter-occupied in Irvine, according to the appraisal.
Going to Colorado
Irvine-based Tri Pointe Homes is expanding its reach outside California.
Tri Pointe recently said it has started up a Colorado division.
Matt Osborn, a 20-year veteran of Englewood, Colo.-based family-owned builder Village Homes, was tapped as the president of the division, which will have its office in the Tech Center area of Denver.
Colorado’s Douglas County, which leads the region in sales, will be Tri Pointe’s initial focus, the company said.
Other areas around Denver will also be potential sources of deals, according to Tri Pointe.
The Colorado operation represents Tri Pointe’s first division outside California.
Earlier this year, the company said it was building in Riverside, San Marcos and Simi Valley.
It previously built on the Irvine Ranch and has projects in the works for La Habra, Huntington Beach, and is working on some of the first homes planned at Rancho Mission Viejo LLC’s Sendero project in South County.
Tri Pointe was founded in 2009 and has several executives formerly of Newport Beach-based William Lyon Homes.
Apartment Activity
Another sizable apartment complex near the Bella Terra shopping center in Huntington Beach appears to have traded hands.
The latest complex selling in the area is La Quinta Hermosa, a 94-unit apartment complex at 16211 Parkside Lane, according to brokerage reports.
An entity operating under the name VPM Huntington Parkside LP paid $18.4 million, or $195,745 per room, for the 77,468-square-foot complex, according to CoStar Group Inc. data.
The buyer is believed to be affiliated with Irvine-based Village Investments.
The seller was a partnership of New York-based Westbrook Partners and NNC Apartment Ventures LLC of Long Beach.
An NNC-affiliated company earlier this summer sold the nearby Via Verde apartment complex, a 277-unit property at 15555 Huntington Village Lane that traded hands for $67.5 million. That deal is believed to be Orange County’s priciest apartment sale so far this year.
Other apartment complexes in the neighborhood recently selling include The Huntington, a 276-unit low-rise complex at 8400 Edinger Ave. That 202,000-square-foot complex traded hands for about $48.3 million in July.
