Irvine Company to build 4.5K apartments in Irvine

It’s a done deal: The Irvine Company was given the go-ahead to build more than 4,500 homes in Irvine.

The City Council approved a deal with the Newport Beach-based developer to begin construction on apartments, which will include 1,025 affordable units, the Orange County Register reported.

The project was supported unanimously with a 5-0 vote this week, and will help the OC city meet its state-approved homebuilding goal of 23,600 units by 2029. The plan includes 15,000 affordable homes for households earning less than the average local median wage.

The “memorandum of understanding” between the city and developer also calls for the Irvine Company to pay a $14,500-per-unit fee, or up to $65 million, to the city.

“We needed to be audacious,” Tammy Kim, vice mayor for Irvine, said before the vote.

The new housing would go on five sites, with all but one near the Irvine Spectrum jobs hub.

The housing deal targets in-fill lots — or small pieces of Irvine Company land that’s either underused or vacant.

The deal was negotiated by a city committee that includes Mayor Farrah Khan and Vice Mayor Tammy Kim.

• The 4,536 new apartments would be built at the company’s Discovery Park, Market Place, Spectrum, Los Olivos, and Technology Drive developments. 
• Discovery Park, where 29 vacant acres were once planned for commercial use near Discovery and Laguna Canyon, OC’s largest developer would build 1,459 apartments, 150 of them affordable.
• At Market Place shopping center on Jamboree Road, the Irvine Company would replace 15 acres of what’s now 200,000 square feet of vacant stores with 1,261 apartments, 211 of them affordable. 
• Spectrum, a neighborhood filled with offices near Gateway and Pacifica, the Irvine Company would fill two sites spanning 10 vacant acres with 896 units, 150 of them affordable.
• Los Olivos, next to an Irvine Company apartment complex near Gitano and Encanto once considered for a new school, the company would fill 10 vacant acres with 600 apartments, 150 of them deemed affordable.
• On Technology Drive, the developer would turn a 4-acre commercial lot near the 133 Freeway toll road into a 320-unit affordable housing complex. The firm seeks to donate the land to the city, which would then find a partner for construction — typically a developer specializing in affordable housing. 

— Dana Bartholomew