IRVINE, CA—Trammell Crow Co.'s speculative office project, the Boardwalk, will offer the next generation of office product that this market is craving, Tom Bak, senior managing director of the firm's Southern California—Newport Beach business unit, tells GlobeSt.com. We spoke with Bak exclusively about the need for this type of product in the Orange County market and what is required to develop it.

GlobeSt.com: What does the Boardwalk project say about the office market in Orange County?

Bak: It's the right time to build on a speculative basis. Vacancy, net absorption and job creation are all trending in the right direction, coupled with a significant change in the makeup of the economy. This makes for a pretty exciting time in Orange County. Professional services, healthcare and technology have brought diversification to the market that it hasn't had in the past, or at least to the degree it has now, and it's probably the most telling benefit of today's marketplace. We look at five things when we get excited about a market like Orange County: 1) job creation—the year-over-year statistics about job creation drive building on a spec basis; 2) picking the best locations is an important consideration; 3) building the best building design, and we think we do—Orange County hasn't seen a building like ours and is ready for something new; 4) we're also keen on building early in a cycle recover because the building costs basis is lower than it would be in a later part of the cycle; 4) it's also exciting to focus on barriers to entry. There are not a lot of entitled properties in the Orange County market in general.

GlobeSt.com: What are the necessary elements of new office projects in this market—i.e., what works and what doesn't?

Bak: There are probably a handful of essentials that differentiate today's designs from those of the past. A lot of it comes down to how you define best-of-class design, which is no longer what it used to be. Design needs speak to the identity of the tenants and become the signature of the company—it's not just signage on a building anymore. Obviously, floorplates have changed pretty dramatically, and we're offering a diversity of sizes in one building, from 30,000 square feet to up to 65,000 square feet of contiguous space. With that, you have a lot of efficiency and flexibility and an equal focus on cost-effective space. Also, the interior environment is important, and this has changed. Natural light has pushed ceiling heights to over 10 ft., and floor-to-ceiling glass creates an interior sense of space that is attractive to employers and employees. We're blessed in Southern California with year-round great weather, so the amenities blend with the lifestyle of the people working in the building. These include a collection of indoor and outdoor amenities. Southern California weather breeds a lifestyle that is really conducive to working in a variety of locations within the project. Lastly, parking is important in a project. We're working toward getting five spaces per 1,000—that's our goal. That's a fairly significant differentiator in our ability to attract tech, professional and healthcare tenants who are served best by having parking that exceeds the norm.

GlobeSt.com: Given that density is limited in Orange County office projects, how do you see the creative-office trend developing in this market?

Bak: Orange County has one of the great bases of entrepreneurship, so the development community here is very creative in and of itself, and I do see a recognition that where there's a will, there's a way. That's an important distinction. What we have seen to date is adaptive re-use, so creative office has been less ground-up than adaptive re-use has been in Orange County, which is not necessarily the case in cities north of us. The key will be the adaptive re-use opportunities unfold and can offer mobility to parking, since transportation will be a big driver in terms of the future. Californians are very creative, and I think you're going to continue to see creative office be in adaptive-re-use mode, whereas our project is ground up, new generation, if you will, vs. the creative office in other buildings.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about the Boardwalk?

Bak: People in the community have commented that our building is very unique to the market. From our vantage point, uniqueness is probably an appropriate term because we have a new project that fits on 7.5 acres of entitled real estate, and that's a very large piece of land. It's not something that's been done in this market. There are very few projects of that size in this market. There are two nine-story buildings, a restaurant focused on nearby retail, and there are 2 acres of landscaped open space—that's very unique and uncommon in this market. In terms of using next generation, we're redefining that next generation to be a workplace that is unique. It's one of the things you have to visualize. Our revolutionary design provides large floorplates, and the marketplace today is viewed as having areal shortage of contiguous space over 50,000 square feet. So, our ability to provide large floorplates by connecting buildings on alternative floors on indoor bridges and outdoor walkways is very unique, this unmatched connectivity and efficiency. When you combine the uniqueness of the design of our project and its location to the major thoroughfare of Jamboree Rd. with the design of the building from the inside out, tenants are looking at it like it's something really different.