The towers are falling. Well, not literally, but the prices of the condos at a pair of luxury towers in Irvine are crashing. Here are some excerpts from the O.C. Register:
Orange County’s first luxury high-rise tower project now has its first foreclosure.
A unit in one of the twin 18-story towers in Irvine has been repossessed by the lender, the first foreclosure in Marquee Park Place, according to two Web sites that track foreclosures, foreclosureradar.com and foreclosures.com.
And that’s not all.
Veronica Hicks, head of brokerage Condos etc.in Newport Beach, said she is marketing a unit on the 16th story of one of the towers for $950,000 to $1.1 million, which is less than the debt owed to the bank. Such deals are dubbed “short sales.”
While only two of the 232 units are under duress, a total of 42, or 18 percent, were listed for sale last week in the Southern California Multiple Listing Service. The towers are a little more than 2 years old.
So what is going on in Santa Ana? Glad you asked. Robert Bisno, the developer who gave thousands of dollars to the fraudulent Measure D, has some towers in mind for north Santa Ana. The project is called the City Place Sky Lofts (pictured above). It is described as a “27-story residential tower extends approximately 365 feet eight inches above street level and consists of 333 units ranging from 804 to 2,000 square feet.”
A housing expert quoted by the Register said, “the market is showing very limited demand for high-rise living. Orange County residents prefer traditional housing.”
It is my understanding that there are two more luxury condo towers planned for south Santa Ana.
One of our readers put it best, “Santa Ana is always a day late and a dollar short in planning and execution.”
Art, Why do you take such pleasure in always looking for the negative in everything you see? Perhaps that is why you were so soundly defeated (last place right?) when you ran for a lowly school board post. People want leaders who instill hope in others. You my friend are not a leader.
C’mon Art, having some towers “in mind” for Santa Ana or wanting to “plan” condo towers is totally dictated by market forces. It’s one thing to “want” them and quite another to have the conditions on the ground to make them happen. A lot of developers would like to build in Santa Ana…god knows we need some renovation. But none of this will happen until the market turns around.
Poster 2,
That is not true! One of Bisno’s goons told me, at a neighborhood association meeting, that Pulido “wanted” the luxury condo tower in north Santa Ana.
Just look at the failure of the City Place. They can’t give their townhomes away! They are so desperate they have even resorted to using human signs to advertise their overpriced units!
Pulido and his cabal need to seriously come to grip with reality – luxury condo towers are not a good fit for Santa Ana.
This is just more evidence that Number One Broadway is not going to happen as promised either. You’ve got a torn-up historical building out there rotting and big promises for hot real estate developments.
What is really going to happen is that month after month, year after year, Number One is going to look like those half-baked projects down in baja.
The city leaders will point to the pit and claim that it is the sign of great progress to the newbies as some kind of selling point.
Reality is that you’ll have to wait for the next real estate boom to be well in progress before Santa Ana sees any action at all towards completion.
Mike Harrah’s Barrio and Eye Sore.
Lucky SA is “a day late and a dollar short” on this one. This whole concept has always just cracked me up! “Let’s be real cool like New Yorkers and live in high rises!” Hah. Who wants to live in an apartment in So Cal, when you can have a house/condo/townhouse with a yard? Sure, there are some empty nesters looking for low upkeep pads, and a sprinkling of others that want something unique. Other than that, I was never so sure of a “concept” failure as with this hooey. SA can thank their lucky stars they won’t be following the “leadership thinking” of Irvine and Anaheim (The Lofts at Anaheim” or whatever they called it- Baaaahaaa!).
Art,
So Pulido wants towers too? Wow. Now Bisno AND Pulido “want” them. I guess they’ll be breaking ground soon because these two people “want” them.
And bringing up City Place is irrelevant. City Place was designed and planned YEARS ago…way before the real estate bubble burst. Those units aren’t selling because we’re in the midst of a housing slump…not because the housing type is inappropriate. Go back 2 or 3 years and the place would be sold out.
As a longtome resident of overcrowded Eastside Santa Ana I have experienced firsthand the effects of overbulding. When I first arrived in Santa Ana I was told that prior councilmembers were to blame for the poor decisions to build large apartments without understanding the impact on Schools and services.
I have since become jaded when it comes to accepting the excited optimism of our city council when they propose high density construction in our overcrowded city.
Try as i might, I can’t seem to shake the feeling that the Mayor and councilmembers have benefited and will continue to benefit from their relationships with the developers money.
Now, I don’t have any problem with well thought out housing and happily changed my mind on the downtown lofts, that I at first didn’t approve of.
But high density building’s, proposed by developers who have a key to the eigth floor make me wonder how quickly we have forgotten the lessons of the past.
We all have a responsibility to protect not only our neighborhoods but those of our neighbors across town. Don’t believe that what happened to my neighborhood 30 years ago can’t happen to yours.
#7
You need look no further than the City Place EIR regarding the much discussed residential tower. A parcel of land, northeast section of City Place, was intentionally omitted from the EIR at the insistence of Pulido. According to the developer, Pulido exerted pressure to push his vision for a looming residential tower that would rival One Broadway Plaza.
For those who attended the Santiago Park NA meetings, this is no surprise. Bisno was upfront about the incomplete EIR and Pulido’s desire for a residential high rise.
The city’s height challenged mayor continues to push phallic-style towers in Santa Ana. I’m certain Freud would have plenty to say about this obsession.
A pajarito told me that Pudrido also put pressure on the Segerstroms to build those million dollar homes on Bear St. Hmmm. Aren’t some of those already in foreclosre???? Wow. Pudrido sure is a pretty smart when it comes to real estate. hahahahahahahahahahaha
Let’s give credit where credit is due. Thank you Dave Ream, you white devil, for f**%ing up Santa Ana even more.
#9,
Again, wanting a tower, and having the economic/market conditions on the ground to make it happen are two very different things.
6/14
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The prices have risen since this they are now worth over 1 million. I want to know when did all this pass city council and the people of the neighborhood had no idea? But check out the neighborhood statistics no mexicans in the neighborhood. elementary school paine, junior high school paine, high school paine, I would like to know are they building a school here. I would like to know where this school is located. Did any one out there here about this project at the city council meetings?
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Poster 7 has it right – projects that are hitting the bricks today have nothing to do with the current market. Art – you should know that a project that was feasible 5 years ago might not fly in today’s market. It takes time to complete the EIR, discretionary actions, and for the applicant themselves to negotiate with the lenders. Some things just missed the market. It has nothing to do with the City dictating what SHOULD be built. You are way off base.
Poster 14,
You must be joking. These luxury towers were NEVER right for Santa Ana! Ever! Who in our city can afford these overpriced monstrosities? The reason Pulido has been pimping so hard for these is GENTRIFICATION. He hates immigrants and his goal is always the same – to displace them and replace them with wealthy white people.
Jokes on you Pudrido. The towers are NOT selling. Anywhere. Time to rethink your Mexican replacement strategy.
Let me put this another way. Pulido could have spent the last twenty years trying to help his people. Opening libraries. Helping good trustees get elected to the school board. Supporting more after school and summer youth programs. Instead, he wasted the last twenty years trying to get rid of his own people. What a damn vendido Pudrido is…
If any of you folks are interested in the future of housing in Irvine and even Santa Ana, I suggest you all take a peek over in the “Irvine Housing Blog”.
There is excellent analysis of the real estate trend in the daily articles. If you don’t have a college degree then most of the stuff just might go over your head. Either way, it is excellent reading.
Ream and Pudrido are stupid enough to approve any high rise condo scheme just goes to show that they are already bought and paid for by these developers and have no true “vision” for the benefit if SA’s citizens
#16
You don’t need an undergrad degree to figure out the housing market in the OC.
Santa Ana will continue on the downslide until Pulido and Ream are removed.
Too bad Pulidro prevailed when the city wanted to do away with his eyesore muffler shop.
Anon #17,
My reference to that blog was not about the readership numbers. It was more about the very useful down-to-the-bone information and analysis that one gets by reading the articles and the comments.
Maybe if more people had educated themselves before buying a home in the last five years, we wouldn’t be in such a big declining housing market now.
If I had a dollar for everytime someone asked me about the “first time home buyer” advantage I’d be a millionaire by now…
A loan is just what the term implies. It is money that someone lends you that eventually you have to pay back, most of the time with a lot of interest. People were just sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring their eventual responsibility.
Oh, but wait, it is the buyers that were the victims, right?
Though there were those scumbag lenders that would lie and change the terms of the contract after the signatures. Those people need to go to jail for their unethical actions that have lead to many people losing their homes.
A request for clarification on housing types. and reasoning for bias on ethnic make-up, etc.
Luxury towers, quality housing, upscale housing, well built housing, decent housing.
Or
Affordable housing, low-income housing, the Projects, crap shacks, cardboard boxes.
What type of housing should be built in Santa Ana, now and in the future?
I myself like the idea of Luxury Condo