Holds Briefing for Other Irvine Firms : Fluor Spells Out Its Development Plans

Responding to hand-delivered invitations, representatives from more than a dozen Irvine companies met informally Wednesday to discuss Fluor Corp.’s controversial development plans for its 162-acre property.

About 15 people attended the afternoon meeting, where officials of the giant engineering and construction company detailed development plans for its property along the San Diego Freeway.

Fluor is working in partnership with Trammell Crow Co. of Dallas, Tex., on a billion-dollar hotel, commercial and retail complex. Fluor sold its land to Trammell Crow in October for about $340 million.

In recent weeks, Irvine city officials have raised questions about whether the development complies with the city’s corporate growth policies. The Irvine City Council has set a special hearing on the matter for March 18. Irvine Mayor David Sills said Wednesday that he was not aware of the Fluor meeting and no city representatives attended.

“We wanted to initiate some dialogue with the other companies,” said Rick Maslin, a Fluor spokesman. “We tried to clear up some misconceptions.”

Charles Cannon, Fluor’s vice chairman, and Joseph Trimble, Fluor’s general counsel, outlined the Fluor/Trammell plan, which calls for two hotels with 1,000 rooms, a retail complex and several office buildings to be built around Fluor’s corporate headquarters.

“This isn’t putting us in any sort of advantageous position in front of other Irvine developers,” Maslin said. The complex will not cause traffic gridlock because it includes nine traffic improvement measures, he said.

“We support Fluor because they own the property,” said Paul Queyrel, president of MPC Industries Inc. He said Fluor asked for support from its neighboring companies because it believes the company has the right to develop its property.

Queyrel said his manufacturing company has never had any difficulties dealing with the City of Irvine on growth issues.