A Different Approach to OC Office Redux

Choi: “The existing stock is commodity space, and we want to be the people who give the end user the ability to embrace their brand and show it off—it’s a different approach.”

IRVINE, CA—Customization and branding aren’t common in Orange County’s office stock, but Harbor Associates has seven projects in various stages of renovation that prove there’s a market for office space that isn’t cookie-cutter, company principal Joon Choi tells GlobeSt.com. Each asset (five in Tustin, one in Irvine and one in Lake Forest) is in different stages of renovation. We spoke with Choi about the projects and some of the firm’s operational wins in this market.

Since our discussion with Choi, the firm has acquired Tustin Corporate, a 43,517-square-foot office building located at 18302 Irvine Blvd. in Tustin in an all-cash transaction with the Bascom Group LLC. Harbor acquired the asset through a distressed on-line auction bid process from an out-of-state special servicer. This transaction marks the eighth value-add office acquisition for Harbor in the last two years and second acquisition for the firm in the last two weeks, coming on the heels of the firm’s acquisition of Bespoke Century City in West L.A. The acquisition expands the firm’s existing footprint in Orange County to seven buildings across five different projects and represents the firm’s third acquisition in Tustin, where it owns close to 300,000 square feet. CHoi describes the project further in his description of the fifth project the firm is working on, below.