Brookfield Nails $654M Land Deal With Irvine
Toronto-based firm plans to build residential development on the site.
The City of Irvine has approved the sale of 70 acres of land for $654M to Brookfield for a new residential development of more than 1,200 homes.
Toronto-based Brookfield is planning to build a development known as Gateway Village at the northeast corner of Jeffrey Road and Portola Parkway. The development will include 927 single-family homes and 300 affordable apartments, according to a report in the Orange County Register.
The single-family homes will have an average unit size of 1,844 SF and an average unit price of $1.4M. Amenities will include parks, a community garden and a recreation center with a clubhouse and pools. Construction is expected to begin in 2026, the report said.
Proceeds from the land sale to Brookfield will help pay off the city’s $285M purchase of the nearby All American Asphalt Plant, which was shuttered in November, assistant city manager Pete Carmichael told the newspaper. The city is planning to include the 11-acre site of the asphalt plant as part of Gateway Preserve, an open space preserve encompassing nearly 700 acres the city is developing in the hills above North Irvine.
The Gateway Preserve will create a new hub for hiking, biking and other outdoor endeavors, while also serving as an entry point—thus the name Gateway—to the 20,000-acre Northern Open Space Preserve. It will connect to Limestone Canyon, Black Star Canyon, and extend to the Cleveland National Forest.
In proximity to Brookfield’s Gateway Village, the city is creating the Jeffrey Open Space Trail, which will span Portola Parkway by way of a new pedestrian bridge that will continue along Jeffrey Road to its new terminus at the entrance of the Gateway Preserve.
The Gateway Preserve sits adjacent to residential neighborhoods, the Native Seed Farm and some of the region’s most productive avocado fields.
The City of Irvine filed a public nuisance lawsuit in 2020 against the All American Asphalt Plant and for several years had explored options for relocating the plant, which opened in the early 1990s before much of the surrounding residential development, the Register’s report said.