Lennar Affiliate Buys Irvine Office Campus for $232 Million

A 24-acre office campus in the Irvine Business Complex is due for a residential conversion after it sold for $232.1 million, fetching more than double its last sale price in one of Orange County’s largest recent land sales.

A joint venture of TPG Angelo Gordon and Essential Housing Asset Management, an affiliate of Miami-based homebuilder Lennar, acquired the former Von Karman Creative Campus from IRA Capital, according to Traded. The nine-building campus totals roughly 433,000 square feet, putting the deal at $536 per square foot.

The deal closes the book on a yearslong effort to transform the aging property into a residential neighborhood, as the entitled site will be redeveloped into over 400 homes.

A Lennar spokesperson declined to comment on the sale to the Orange County Business Journal, but IRA Capital officials confirmed that Lennar will build homes on the site.

Built in 1988, the campus once served as a high-end office complex, but demand never fully recovered after the pandemic.

Irvine-based IRA bought it in 2023 for $102.4 million from EQ Office, a Chicago unit of New York-based Blackstone. At the time, Kasm told the Business Journal: “The value of this property is in the land.”

Initial plans called for an industrial redevelopment. City officials later urged IRA to pivot toward housing as Irvine faced mounting state housing mandates.

The city conditionally offered to buy the site for more than $300 million if housing failed to materialize — a backstop that helped ensure a residential outcome. Ultimately, IRA secured entitlements for 426 homes, including detached houses, townhomes and stacked flats, in what IRA said was an unusually fast approval process.

Irvine Mayor Larry Agran called the project a step forward in the city’s long-term vision for the business complex, which was rezoned to allow up to 15,000 homes.

Construction is expected to begin within months, with completion targeted in 18 to 24 months.

The joint venture’s purchase ranks among the most expensive single-property deals in Orange County in recent times. Five Point Holdings sold 326 home sites in Great Park Neighborhoods during the third quarter of 2025, for $257.7 million. In April, Miami-based Crescent Heights paid $240 million for Essex Property Trust’s 350-unit Skyline at MacArthur Place in Santa Ana, per Commercial Observer.

— Lauren Elkies Schram