Orange County Getting Twin High-Rise Condo Towers
The twin 25-story structures in Santa Ana with 349 units will be the tallest residential buildings in the area.
By Roger Vincent, Times Staff Writer
June 15, 2006


Orange County's skyward trend in new housing is getting another boost with the construction of two condominium towers in Santa Ana.

Developer Nexus Cos. said Wednesday that construction was underway on the $350-million first phase of Skyline at MacArthur Place, which will include 349 condos in two 25-story towers about a block southeast of the intersection of Main Street and MacArthur Boulevard in the South Coast Metro area.

ADVERTISEMENTNexus also revealed for the first time the design for the towers, which were first announced a year ago.

When completed in early 2008, the towers will be the tallest residential buildings in Orange County. The luxury complex with a fitness center and putting course is aimed at empty nesters, retirees and young professionals, Nexus President Cory Alder said. "It's not designed for children," he added.

The towers overlook a man-made lake in the MacArthur Place mixed-use development. Units will range in size from 1,000 square feet to 2,400 square feet and will be priced from the high $500,000s to as much as $2 million for the penthouses.

Although Orange County remains a decidedly low-rise housing market, the Nexus towers are among dozens of high-rise residences planned or being built as land for housing development becomes scarce and single-family home prices soar.

Desirable land near John Wayne Airport in particular has been grabbed up by residential developers encouraged by rapid sales at the Marquee Park Place high-rise condominiums completed last year and the nearby Plaza Irvine still under construction.

Orange County condo tower development has so far been successful in part "because they have attracted some speculative investors," said chief economist G.U. Krueger of IHP Capital Partners in Irvine. "It remains to be seen if these buildings will be occupied by real living people."

Nexus will attempt "to weed out the vast majority" of speculators by demanding substantial down payments and requiring units to be held for at least a year before they can be resold, Alder said. And some local residents are in search of a more urban atmosphere.

"We have people moving here from New York City and Asia," he said. "Those people are used to living in high-rises."

Orange County Getting Twin High-Rise Condo Towers
The twin 25-story structures in Santa Ana with 349 units will be the tallest residential buildings in the area.
By Roger Vincent, Times Staff Writer
June 15, 2006


Orange County's skyward trend in new housing is getting another boost with the construction of two condominium towers in Santa Ana.

Developer Nexus Cos. said Wednesday that construction was underway on the $350-million first phase of Skyline at MacArthur Place, which will include 349 condos in two 25-story towers about a block southeast of the intersection of Main Street and MacArthur Boulevard in the South Coast Metro area.

ADVERTISEMENTNexus also revealed for the first time the design for the towers, which were first announced a year ago.

When completed in early 2008, the towers will be the tallest residential buildings in Orange County. The luxury complex with a fitness center and putting course is aimed at empty nesters, retirees and young professionals, Nexus President Cory Alder said. "It's not designed for children," he added.

The towers overlook a man-made lake in the MacArthur Place mixed-use development. Units will range in size from 1,000 square feet to 2,400 square feet and will be priced from the high $500,000s to as much as $2 million for the penthouses.

Although Orange County remains a decidedly low-rise housing market, the Nexus towers are among dozens of high-rise residences planned or being built as land for housing development becomes scarce and single-family home prices soar.

Desirable land near John Wayne Airport in particular has been grabbed up by residential developers encouraged by rapid sales at the Marquee Park Place high-rise condominiums completed last year and the nearby Plaza Irvine still under construction.

Orange County condo tower development has so far been successful in part "because they have attracted some speculative investors," said chief economist G.U. Krueger of IHP Capital Partners in Irvine. "It remains to be seen if these buildings will be occupied by real living people."

Nexus will attempt "to weed out the vast majority" of speculators by demanding substantial down payments and requiring units to be held for at least a year before they can be resold, Alder said. And some local residents are in search of a more urban atmosphere.

"We have people moving here from New York City and Asia," he said. "Those people are used to living in high-rises."
Sounds like one hell of a project. Congrats to Orange County!!!!:):):):):):):):):):)

I wonder what happened to those towers. They've been finished long time ago, but nobody is living there, they just stand there empty...

Probably because no one can afford to buy them. The economy does kinda suck.

For a minute I thought Silvelake was back.

Me too, and I didn't even know him

http://www.skylineocrentals.com/

The OC is a strange animal. Demand is there and high-rises can be economically justified but no one center is getting enough density to be called urban. It's hard to call it even multi-polar; more like multi-low-density-polar.

Are there any serious plans for urban development? Or is "resort-dense" all that we can ever expect.

The OC is a strange animal. Demand is there and high-rises can be economically justified but no one center is getting enough density to be called urban. It's hard to call it even multi-polar; more like multi-low-density-polar.

Are there any serious plans for urban development? Or is "resort-dense" all that we can ever expect.

Does Orange County need to be dense? Do its citizens really want that? Lets focus our vertical development on LA County and let Orange County remain as is for now.

I agree that people should be free to live in the style they prefer. But pushing 4M people (3M in OC and maybe .5M in south-east LA) with no DT areas seems rather extreme. This is high-demand, high-growth areas and you would think that someone (Huntington Beach? Costa Mesa?) would evolve something urban.

And that was my question, really: is there any plan at all to develop anything like an urban DT, or is it all clumps of towers amid large parking lots ("resort-dense")?

And that was my question, really: is there any plan at all to develop anything like an urban DT, or is it all clumps of towers amid large parking lots ("resort-dense")?

http://www.cityofirvine.org/civica/press/display.asp?layout=1&Entry=1160