MISSION VALLEY, CA—The reinvestment that transformed one of San Diego's largest apartment complexes here into a resort-style gated community is in one of the Irvine Co.'s favorite coastal markets, the firm's Chaz Mueller, president of apartment operations, tells GlobeSt.com.  Following its recent $150-million renovation of Village Mission Valley, formerly known as La Mirage Apartments, we spoke exclusively with Mueller and Stacey Foo-Kunesh, general manager for the apartment community, about the renovation and trends in multifamily renovation.

GlobeSt.com: Is this large an investment in an apartment-community renovation typical for your company?

Mueller: First of all, San Diego is a market that we're very focused on; that's why we like this property in Mission Valley. The company only invests in four markets, and they're all coastal-California desirable locations: San Diego, Orange County the Bay Area and L.A. San Diego is a market we've actually been in for a long time, but we're looking to expand our presence there; it's a market we really like and are looking to do more there.

We do a significant amount of apartment investment, and many of our projects are this large, but most of it is ground-up development. This project is larger than we typically do for a reinvestment. It's in a great location adjacent to Mission Valley and San Diego, and we felt like it gave us a really good opportunity to target that market. the property had not really been maintained for a long period of time; it's been kind of undermanaged and was not up to standards, so there were many opportunities to make pretty dramatic improvements both inside the units as well as to the common areas—in particular, just bring up the overall quality of the community and completely repositioning it in the marketplace.

Foo-Kunesh: I joined the company, as well as the community, in September 2013, approximately seven days after we acquired the community. From where it was to where it is today, there's been a stunning transformation of the exterior and interiors of the building and the amenities. It's a night-and-day difference from where it was before. To be able to say I was a part of it is a great accomplishment.

Mueller: It has everything a resident would want in terms of shopping and entertainment, as well as being convenient to employment centers anywhere around San Diego. It has everything to offer that a resident would like—all right there and very convenient: the malls, shopping, restaurants, Qualcomm Stadium.

GlobeSt.com: Where do you focus the majority of your renovation dollars and time in apartment communities?

Mueller: It varies based on the property, but we almost always upgrade the interiors when we renovate a community because the property is usually at a point in its lifecycle where it warrants a redevelopment like this. Interiors are typically dated and in need of upgrade, so there's almost always some level of interior as well as exterior upgrade. This property, in particularly, was more on the extensive end of what we would do to the exterior. We removed the tennis courts near the pool area since the resident profile told us the courts aren't used that much, so we were able to significantly expand the pool area. It has a luxury-resort-in-Hawaii feel. We also added a dog park. Some properties on the lower end might just require updating the interiors of the clubhouse and more cosmetic types of changes as opposed to the changes we did here, which were much more extensive than cosmetic. We also identified the opportunity to add 90 additional apartment units. We don't normally have that opportunity, but this is a large piece of property on a large piece of land, so we were able to get approval to build the additional units as well.

GlobeSt.com: What trends are you noticing in multifamily renovation?

Mueller: We are focused on the high-end luxury side of the market, so that lends itself to certain upgrades. We find that our target resident profile really appreciates high-quality interiors—things like hard-surface countertops, quartz stone, stainless-steel appliances, hard-surface flooring and more of it throughout the unit in many cases. Also, they appreciate top-notch first-class amenities. We try to make sure we're providing those as well.

The Irvine Co. is also really focused on energy efficiency and water conservation, and at this particular community we installed water-efficiency showerheads and low-flow toilets. We removed a fair amount of turf and replaced it with drought-resistant shrubs. We try to conserve water and have been a leader in that, and it's consistent with our overall philosophy.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about this particular renovation?

Foo-Kunesh: We are a community that tries to sell to the customer who wants to have that resort-living lifestyle where every service within the amenity spaces is available to our residents. Once they drive up our hill, they are here to stay. The amenities we have added or remodeled definitely make that difference when anyone steps into the community. Our clubhouse offers a private, members-only beer and wine café, which is unique and has never been done before, and we have many other amenities in the community. We have a full-time events director whose job is creating the customer experience to its fullest, from hosting monthly intimate resident events as well as large, lavish, evening resident events. We also offer off-site excursions such as kayaking, horseback riding and surfing; cooking and mixology classes; and a state-of-the-art fitness center that offers seven-days-a-week fitness classes for residents. We are creating a lifestyle where residents can come together to create a sense of community for the village.

Mueller: As for the work done inside the units, we made significant upgrades, replacing all of the windows with dual-panel, energy-efficient windows—we replaced more than 7,000 windows—replacing flooring, cabinets and plumbing fixtures. It's almost a completely new unit inside.

Foo-Kunesh: We also replaced the building roof and exterior paint to give it an appearance factor that really makes a big difference. Also, we added a guard house, which we never had before—a 24-hour, controlled staff entry to make it an exclusive gated community. It was not gated before, and the streets were public streets, but with the addition of the guardhouse, they are now private streets.