Metro Center ‘Gives Birth’ to Sextuplet : First of Six 12-Story Costa Mesa Office Towers to Open Thursday
The first of South Coast Metro Center’s sextuplets, a rose-red building 12 stories high, will officially open Thursday with about half its 262,850 square feet of space leased and much of that occupied.
The $30-million tower is the first half of Phase 1 of Torrance-based Transpacific Development Co.’s $190-million “intelligent office buildings” project and has the lead-off address in the six-structure, 1.3-million-square-foot development, 575 Anton Drive, Costa Mesa.
When completed, Metro Center will be more than an office complex. The master plan includes The Lakes, a 17,000-square-foot specialty retail and restaurant center, about 600 residential units, two 350-room hotels and a park with a three-acre lake. Construction has started on The Lakes and the Beverly Heritage Hotel.
The exteriors of the office buildings will have horizontal bands of gray-tinted glass windows dividing a facade of granite from Marble Falls, Tex., that has veins of quartz and mica in light and dark grays with soft, rose tones swirling evenly and almost equally through each piece, according to the producer, Capitol Marble & Granite Co.
The architect is Gin Wong Associates, Los Angeles, and the general contractor is the Los Angeles office of Turner Construction Co. The exclusive leasing agent is Coldwell Banker, Newport Beach.
“Companies and professional firms have discovered that the South Coast Metro District is emerging as the financial crossroads of prosperous Orange County,” Peter H. Adams, Transpacific Development senior vice president, said, adding:
“Among the few granite-clad projects in Orange County, Metro Center has been designed and planned to appeal to firms seeking sophisticated offices in a convenient, accessible and economically reasonable area. The project offers tenants competitive rents, state-of-the-art building systems and an excellent location to do business.”
He also noted that the complex is among the first in Orange County to offer its tenants a “fully intelligent” building with computerized telecommunications, security and energy management systems designed to respond to tenants’ needs for comfort, safety and cost-effectiveness.
Tenants who have leased space include Capitol Marble & Granite’s 2,600-square-foot Los Angeles satellite office. Others are Asset Technology Inc., Dean Witter Reynolds Inc., The Geneva Cos., Manufacturers Data Systems Inc., Wells Fargo Leasing Corp., Knoth & Meades Co., Blue Cross of California, J. H. Anderson, Pacific Orient restaurant and Honeywell Inc.
Leases to date total about $20 million. Other retail tenants planning to occupy space include a savings and loan firm, bank, photo copy center, travel agency, executive gift shop and fitness center.
