Newport developers set sights on El Toro

Paul Clinton

A local developer has joined a short list of firms expected to bid

for a portion of more than 3,400 acres at the former El Toro Marine

Corps Air Station during an online auction in the fall.

Members of the Koll Co., a development company founded by Don Koll

in Newport Beach in 1962, said they are eyeing the fourth 204-acre

parcel being offered by the Navy and the city of Irvine.

“We’d be very interested in a portion of the project,” Koll

partner Alan Airth said. “It’s an absolutely unbelievable property.

It’s incredibly located.”

Koll hopes to build a 1.6-million-square-foot business park on 121

acres of the parcel. The remaining 93 acres would be set aside for

public use and an expansion of the Irvine Auto Center.

The Navy has split the former base into four parcels, which Irvine

is moving to annex. To build the Great Park, as promised in Measure

W, Irvine has crafted specific planning requirements for each of the

parcels.

All proceeds from the sale would go to the Department of Defense,

which owns the land.

Three parcels -- measuring 610, 1,049 and 1,600 acres -- will

accommodate 3,400 homes and 2.9 million square feet of commercial and

industrial space. The land will also be used for a central park, a

habitat preserve, a sports park, a museum and other educational uses,

Irvine leaders have said.

Airth joined a handful of other developers, brokers, property

managers and others in the real estate community at a Thursday

informational meeting in which city and Navy officials diagramed the

disbursement of the El Toro land, which is said to be worth $800

million. Other companies with Newport Beach branches or headquarters

included CB Richard Ellis, Davis Partners, Grubb & Ellis,

Insignia/ESG, Makar Properties and PM Realty Group.

The companies say the land-sale, which will be handled through an

EBay-style online auction, will amount to a bonanza in the real

estate industry.

There are obstacles to any development there, however.

First of all, the land has been contaminated from the decades of

its use as a Marine base. The base closed in the mid-1990s.

Also, the bidding is expected to be feverish. The company that

prevails is expected to pay a high price.

“It will be a pretty exciting process to watch, and I expect it to

be very competitive,” said Bob Davis, a senior vice president at

Grubb & Ellis’ Newport Beach office. “Any of the major developers

would be interested because of the size of parcels being offered.”

The Irvine Co, arguably Orange County’s biggest developer, won’t

make a play for the land.

With a surplus of its own land to develop, the company is

monitoring the process as an interested party, but not a buyer, a

spokesman for the Newport Beach-based company said.

“We have no plans and no interest in being a developer or

purchasing any land at El Toro,” company spokesman John Christiansen

said. “We’ve got a lot of land. We’re pleased with what we have on

our plate.”

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment, business and politics. He

may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

[email protected].