Transforming shiny, half-empty office towers into homes sounds audacious.
Reality is turning plain, old low-rise commercial buildings into neighborhoods.
Ponder Shopoff Realty Investments and its moves that will add 304 homes at two industrial spots in Orange County. The Irvine developer just got the green light from Buena Park for a 281-home project and sold a smaller, 23-home site in Newport Beach.
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In Buena Park, Shopoff and a national homebuilder partner bought 14 acres last year. That land is currently occupied by two industrial buildings where Amway Corp. makes dietary supplements. Amway is expected to exit by the end of the year, clearing the way for demolition and construction as early as 2027, according to Bill Shopoff, chief executive of the company that bears his name.
The vision is to turn the site into 5600 Beach Blvd., a new address with 231 townhomes and 50 affordable rentals for seniors. If all goes well, folks could be living there by 2029.
In Newport Beach, Shopoff sold a 1-acre site, Park Palm, to Shea Homes. The property, part of the Upper Newport Village project, can hold 23 townhomes.
Uptown Newport is built on a slice of an old semiconductor plant, part of Orange County’s rich technology manufacturing legacy. The location was once home to factories and offices for Collins Radio, Rockwell Semiconductor and Conexant.
Shopoff bought the property in December 2010 and got city approval in 2013 to build 1,244 residential units, 11,500 square feet of commercial and retail space, plus two 1-acre parks.
So far, 458 luxury apartments and 30 ownership condos have been built. The Shea transaction marks the completion of the project’s first phase. The next development at the site will come after the remaining factories are closed, as early as 2030.
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Converting commercial real estate into housing is one of Shopoff’s specialties. The firm is also working on a redevelopment of the former Westminster Mall, with plans to turn the site into 2,250 homes, a hotel and fresh shopping space.
Of course, there are technical and financial issues when juggling these transitions. Plus, getting cities to agree to these kinds of zoning switches can be challenging.
But Shopoff says the approval process in recent years has “become somewhat simpler to contend with.” State pressure on California cities to build more housing clearly helps.
“I won’t go so far as saying it’s easy,” Shopoff says of the process. “I’ll just say it’s easier.”
Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at [email protected]
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