The class A high rise near the John Wayne Airport is tentatively expected to be completed in September 2007, according to Matt Montgomery, director of real estate development for Opus West. It will become part of a master planned development of approximately 900,000 sf of high-rise office space that includes Opus Center Irvine I and II.
Montgomery says that Opus considers the time right for building because of factors such as strong absorption, decreasing vacancy rates and a lack of large blocks of contiguous class A office space. At the same time, office rents in Orange County have been rising to record levels, according to quarterly statistics from real estate brokerages.
The Opus Center Irvine I building is a 12-story, a 268,000-sf tower that is 99% occupied. Opus Center II is a 14-story, 307,559-sf building that is 95% occupied.
Opus sold the second building in late 2004 to the property's largest tenant, Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP, for more than $100 million. Opus Center Irvine I was sold to Prudential in 2001 for approximately $70 million.
Leasing agents for the new Opus building are Dean Chandler and Al Masters of CB Richard Ellis. Chandler notes that the office vacancy rate dipped by more than four percentage points to 6.7% during 2005 and that the greater airport area absorbed 2.3 million sf of space in 2005. That figure was nearly half of the net absorption for the county during 2005.
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