High-rise plan eyeing condos

Andrew Edwards

Costa Mesa developer C.J. Segerstrom & Sons on Tuesday put in a

request to the city to alter plans for a luxury hotel and office

tower near South Coast Plaza so they would include condominiums,

becoming the latest firm to set its sights on building residential

high-rises in Orange County.

“There is a demand for urban and high-rise residential,” company

spokesman Paul Freeman said of the altered development plans.

Both towers across Bristol Street from South Coast Plaza could be

as high as 21 stories, Freeman said, and the hotel could incorporate

30 to 40 condos into its design. The fraction of the planned office

building that could switch to residential use has not yet been

decided.

Freeman emphasized that his company does not project any increase

in traffic if any condos go up.

“We think this is a positive thing from a smart-planning,

smart-growth perspective,” Freeman said.

The City Council could vote on the Segerstrom request as early as

Aug. 2, Costa Mesa principal planner Kimberly Brandt said. A

favorable vote for the application would mean that the firm would be

allowed to submit more detailed plans for mixed-use development in

the future. Those plans would be required to pass the council’s

muster before construction crews can get to work.

Costa Mesa is not the only Orange County city where high-rise

condos are in the works or on the drawing board. Kristine Thalman,

chief executive officer of the Building Industry Assn. Orange County

chapter, noted that builders are also looking to go vertical in

Irvine’s Jamboree corridor, in Santa Ana, and in the proposed

Platinum Triangle development in Anaheim.

“It’s clearly the wave of the future in Orange County,” Thalman

said.

The trend toward high-rise development is driven by the limited

availability of land and high cost of housing in the county, Thalman

said, noting what she sees as a scarcity in the county’s housing

supply.

“We still have a tremendous demand. The last statistic I saw was

we’re building one home for every 30 people that enter Orange

County,” she said.

Costa Mesa planners are still waiting for detailed plans from two

Los Angeles-based developers, Maguire Properties and McCarthy Cook &

Co., that have also proposed residential towers in north Costa Mesa,

Brandt said. City officials need the plans before any environmental

analysis of the proposals can happen.

“Once they’ve submitted they’re applications, then we’ll know what

the scope is,” Brandt said.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be

reached at (714) 966-4624.