A two-building office site in Irvine that’s about a block from John Wayne Airport is being eyed for a hotel development.
Early-stage plans for a 164-room Hampton Inn & Suites hotel were recently filed with the city’s planning department.
The project, located at 2182 and 2192 Dupont Drive, is expected to be taken up by the planning department in October.
An approval would clear the way for construction to begin later next year, according to Narendra Patel, managing partner of Costa Mesa-based S3 Hotel Group, the new owner of the office properties.
The development would rise next to two existing hotels on MacArthur Boulevard—the 302-room Hilton Irvine/Orange County Airport hotel and the 206-room Atrium Hotel.
Both of those properties are across the street from the airport. The site of the proposed development is near the intersection of Dupont and Michelson drives, close to the headquarters of drug maker Allergan Inc.
The Dupont Drive site holds a pair of two-story offices totaling about 36,200 square feet. The multitenant buildings were sold about a month ago in separate transactions for a combined $6.7 million, or about $186 per square foot.
An affiliate of S3 Hotel Group bought both buildings from a pair of private sellers.
David Romero and John Collins of Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services represented the buyer in both transactions, along with the seller in the 2192 Dupont transaction. Ross Bourne, Stephen Young, and Thomas Dorman of CBRE Group Inc. represented the seller in the 2182 Dupont transaction.
S3 Hotel Group and its affiliates also own the Holiday Inn Irvine South-Irvine Spectrum, which opened about four years ago in Lake Forest. They also own the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites in Costa Mesa.
The investors already have one hotel development going up in Irvine on a former office site.
Last year, an affiliate of the company bought a roughly 25,000-square-foot office property next to the San Diego (405) Freeway that previously served as the headquarters of Aliso Viejo-based chipmaker Microsemi Corp.
Microsemi moved its headquarters out of Irvine after striking a lease three years ago for a 109,000-square-foot building in Aliso Viejo’s Summit office campus. That deal allowed the growing company to relocate employees from Irvine, Garden Grove and other locations.
That office was torn down, and the site is now being turned into a five-story, 170-room hotel that will be branded as a Hilton Garden Inn property. The project, which like the Hampton Inn & Suites planned for Dupont Drive is geared toward business travelers, should open next year.
Hilton Worldwide’s portfolio of hotel chains—which includes the Hampton Inn & Suites as one of 10 brands—is under-represented in Irvine, according to Patel, who said the company is on the lookout for other investment opportunities, including in areas outside OC.
The plan for the Hampton Inn & Suites adds to a growing pipeline for hotel development in Irvine. More than 800 hotel rooms are in at least the early stages of development in the city.
Along with the two S3 Hotel Group projects, a seven-story, 180-room hotel has been proposed for the Park Place mixed-use campus next to the 405.
Woodbine Development Corp., a Dallas-based developer that specializes in hospitality properties, was under contract earlier this year to buy the site, which is expected to hold a hotel carrying one of the 18 brands under the nameplate of Marriott International Inc.
A time frame for that project moving ahead has not been disclosed. It is expected to be Woodbine’s first development in California.
AC Hotels by Marriott, a European-themed brand looking to make inroads in select U.S. markets, has been cited as a potential fit for the Park Place hotel.
Other projects on the drawing board include a 149-room Hyatt House Hotel at 2320 Main St. near the intersection of Main Street and Von Karman Avenue, as well as a potential hotel on a 7-acre site on the campus of University of California-Irvine.
A 210-room, eight-story Courtyard by Marriott opened in the Irvine Spectrum earlier this month. That project’s developer, Irvine-based R.D. Olson Development, is considering a second hotel on land next to that project.
