Pacific Financial Plaza

NEWPORT BEACH, CA-The Irvine Co. is nearing completion on a $100 million reinvestment in the 1.5-million-square-foot Fashion Island shopping center and has acquired a 279,000-square-foot office complex in Newport Center. The company says that the investments are aimed at ensuring that "Newport Center will remain a thriving center for mixed-used activities."

The Fashion Island reinvestment has included new architecture and common area amenities, new landscape and water fountains and expanded parking and retail space, along with the addition of nearly 20 new stores and restaurants―among them a full-line Nordstrom department store and a number of boutiques. President Keith Eyrich of Irvine Company Retail Properties, which owns Fashion Island, says the company looks forward to more new store openings beginning in spring 2011.

Phase two of the Fashion Island renovation, a major redevelopment of its seven-screen Island Cinemas, will bring an upscale, state-of-the-art theater complex that will feature stadium seating in all auditoriums. The theater complex is scheduled to close Jan. 12 and to re-open for the Christmas 2011 movie season.

Fashion Island

The office complex that the company acquired is Pacific Financial Plaza, which comprises two seven-story office buildings and one two-story mixed-use building in the 800 block of Newport Center Drive. The property is leased by two primary tenants, bond fund manager Pacific Investment Management Co. LLC and law firm Irell & Manella. It was formerly owned by the California State Teachers Retirement System, according to reports on GlobeSt.com.

Other Irvine Company Office Properties investments include the completion of a nearly $10 million modernization of its office properties around Newport Center, including the restoration of buildings on the 400 and 500 blocks of Newport Center Drive, as well as the company’s headquarter building at 550 Newport Center Dr., according to Doug Holte, president of Irvine Company Office Properties.

Holte notes that the Irvine Co. will "continue to explore future office expansion by utilizing the office building entitlement from the City of Newport Beach through and the Newport Beach General Plan." He added, "We are undergoing the evaluation of several possible alternatives that enhance North Newport Center as a premier business environment, while we proceed with the voluntary seismic retrofitting of the 630 Newport Center Drive parking garage."

The Irvine Co.'s investments in Newport Center run parallel to the civic development and infrastructure improvement being led by the City of Newport Beach, including the building of a new City Hall and Civic Center, parkland expansion, Central Library renovation and road widening, as well as additional planned circulation improvements. The Newport Beach-based company says that, since the original master plan in 1960, "Newport Center was always intended to be the hub for commercial, retail, civic and social life in Newport Beach."