Kingsbarn Realty Capital & Development and the Kelemen Company are poised to bulldoze seven vacant office buildings in Laguna Hills to build nearly 500 homes.
The respective Las Vegas- and Irvine-based developers announced approvals early this year to construct 480 townhomes and apartments on 18.5 acres at two adjacent office complexes between 23282 and 23422 Mill Creek Drive, the Orange County Business Journal reported.
The project, dubbed Terravita, will replace the former HERE@Laguna Hills and Spectrum Summit Plaza office campuses. It was approved by the Laguna Hills City Council in February, but not announced by the developers until this month.
Plans call for 259 three-story townhomes and a 221-unit, six-story apartment building, designed by Urban Arena and AO architects, with a six-story parking garage and private parks. Some 24 apartments will be set aside as affordable for “very low-income” occupants.
Kingsbarn and Keleman bought the five-property HERE campus from The Cigna Group, based in Connecticut, in 2022 for $64 million, according to CoStar. Kingsbarn bought the two-property Summit Plaza from locally based CJ Summit Property in 2023 for $14.5 million.
A timeline for construction was not disclosed.
The Business Journal pegs the project at more than $300 million, or $650,000 a unit, not including the garage. In Orange County, the median list price for a condo/townhome is $800,000, according to Reports on Housing.
The developers decided to swap the 40-year-old offices for homes because of the post-pandemic trend toward working at home, with fewer employees reporting to offices, according to Phil Mader, president of Kingsbarn.
A state housing mandate requires Laguna Hills to plan for 1,985 new homes, with 46 percent set aside as affordable housing. A city “Housing Element” review identified the office sites as underused and a key opportunity for housing.
Nonetheless, the project got one nay vote from Councilman Dave Wheeler and a reluctant thumbs up from Councilwoman Erica Pezold, who said she would have preferred single-family homes with accessory dwelling units.
Laguna Hills Mayor Don Caskey supported the project and liked that it offers both rentals and condos that could help younger people buy or rent a home.
The Kelemen Company, founded in 2017, has 1 million square feet of offices under management, while increasingly repositioning older properties to meet market demands, according to the outlet.
Kingsbarn Realty Capital & Development, founded by Jeff Pori in 2011 with a development arm founded in 2020, has $2.7 billion in assets under management, with 325 properties across the U.S., according to its website.
– Dana Bartholomew