Trammell Crow Co. Will Put Cinema in Irvine’s Park Place

In a first step toward developing a multipurpose commercial center on the 137 acres it bought from Fluor Corp., the Trammell Crow Co. has signed a contract with Newport Beach-based Edwards Theaters Circuit Inc. to place a 30,000-square-foot movie house on the Irvine property.

William Lane Jr., managing partner of Trammell Crow’s Orange County office, said the contract, signed Friday, calls for Trammell Crow to build a six- to eight-screen theater that it will lease to Edwards.

The theater complex will be located in Trammel Crow’s Park Place project, the new name for the Fluor complex, which now houses Fluor’s corporate headquarters as well as 18 other office tenants.

Pending city approval of the retail segment of Trammell Crow’s development plans, Lane said he hopes to begin building the theater in early 1988 for completion within a year after that.

And within 90 days, he said, Trammell Crow expects to submit for review by the city a master plan for 170,000 square feet of additional retail space that will include five free-standing restaurants and a variety of shops. The Texas development firm also hopes to build a hotel on the property.

Trammell Crow, which is developing the former Fluor property in partnership with First Winthrop Corp., a Boston real estate investment firm, already has city approval to build 1.8 million square feet of office buildings as part of the mixed-use project.

Lane said Trammell Crow will begin construction in the fall of an 18,000-square-foot office building with subterranean parking.