After several years of planning with the city, the South Carolina-based apartment investor recently closed on three parcels along Red Hill Avenue.
A venture headed by Newport Beach-based Arrimus Capital sold the properties at 2300, 2310 and 2320 Red Hill Ave. for $73.6 million, or north of $5 million per acre, property records indicate.
The three buildings will be demolished to make way for a residential project that will include 1,100 apartment units and 80,000 square feet of commercial retail and restaurant space.
The development is the largest new residential project on the books for the city.
Residential, Retail
Arrimus Capital, a real estate investment firm run by Christopher Lee, kicked off the planning and entitlement process for the project, formerly called The Bowery, about three years ago.
Arrimus acquired the Red Hill property from Ricoh Electronics in 2018 for $43.5 million in a venture with Newport Beach-based CT Realty Investors, an industrial developer it has partnered with frequently.
A new industrial project was initially considered for a portion of the site, before the owners opted to seek residential entitlements.
It won full approvals for the project ahead of its sale to Greystar, which renamed the project to Warner.
The project is expected to begin construction this year, starting with the demolition of the three industrial buildings on the site, which total 212,457 square feet.
The new project is expected to be built out in phases over the next few years, and will be “designed for future connection to adjacent parcels,” according to RC Alley, managing partner of Orange-based architecture firm AO, which was tapped to design Warner.
“As Santa Ana becomes more urbanized, we want to make sure the project ties nicely into the fabric and future of the city,” Alley told the Business Journal, adding that Warner will be more “timeless, rather than contemporary” in design.
The rental apartments will be joined by a sizeable retail component that could include restaurants, stores and a food hall.
The amenity-heavy project is near the edge of the Tustin Legacy development, and is being seen as a “gateway to the city of Santa Ana,” Alley notes.
Active AO
Warner joins a growing Santa Ana portfolio for AO, formerly known as Architects Orange.
The company recently worked with developer Alliance Residential to take the wraps off Broadstone Archive, the second of three planned multifamily projects to open at the Park & Paseo development in Santa Ana.
The 403-unit Archive complex opened early this year at the 18-acre development at the intersection of Barranca Parkway and Red Hill.
The Park & Paseo project is less than a mile from Warner. It was also shepherded through the entitlement process by Arrimus and subsequently sold to apartment developers for a reported $93 million.
The new phase of development at that site follows Broadstone Arden, a 335-unit project that opened last March.
Alliance is set to continue that development push with its third phase of work at the site, the 483-unit Broadstone Atlas, which is currently under construction and is expected to wrap in summer 2022.
Park & Paseo will total 1,221 units, 18,000 square feet of retail space and 56,000 square feet of office space.
AO also recently took the wraps off Metro East Senior Park Apartments, a six-story, 419-unit senior affordable housing community in Santa Ana near the Tustin border and is about to open First Point, another affordable housing community in the city.
That two-building, 552-unit project is expected to be completed by this fall.
“Cities like Santa Ana that were overlooked during the last development cycle are now seeing strong demand, specifically with new multifamily projects,” Alley said. “Every major developer in OC is looking at Santa Ana.”
