Builders Eager to Ride Monorail Trade-Off : Development: Irvine let one company have 11 extra stories in exchange for part of a monorail line. Now other companies want to board the bandwagon.

A decision by city planners to let McDonnell Douglas Realty Co. build a larger-than-normal office project in exchange for building the first link in a proposed countywide monorail line has fanned interest among other development companies in the futuristic transportation system.

Development companies such as Trammell Crow and Mola Development have talked with city planners to see if they too can use the monorail project to get more office space, officials said Friday.

In addition, McDonnell Douglas Realty President Bob Young said he has discussed the project with those firms and other developers, including the Irvine Co. and the Koll Co.

City planners approved the twin-tower office project late Thursday night, setting the stage for what Planning Commission Chairwoman Mary Ann Gaido said would be the new glittering “gateway” to Irvine.

Plans for the monorail, extending from the airport to the parking garage of the 23-story office towers across MacArthur Boulevard from John Wayne Airport, were approved earlier this year. But McDonnell Douglas officials indicated that the line would not be built unless their project was approved.

Irvine officials called the Planning Commission’s decision a landmark event. “It’s showing the private sector is willing to take the risk in probably one of the most innovative systems in the country,” said Doug Reilly, the executive director of the Irvine Transportation Authority.

But it is a gamble that could pay dividends for McDonnell Douglas Realty. Planners let the development company build 195,000 square feet more than would normally have been allowed in exchange for the company’s promise to build the half-mile-long demonstration project. That is the equivalent of an extra 11-story office building, planners say.

“It’s an opportunity to eliminate traffic congestion and pollution,” Gaido said. “It’s the wave of the future and the first in Orange County to address (traffic problems) in other than 1950s-style roadway.”

In all, the plan calls for 791,000 square feet of office space, 24,000 square feet of retail space and 13,000 square feet of restaurant space. The parking structure will be seven stories tall.

Gaido said the short, $6-million to $7-million monorail line could ultimately connect with another rail system linking Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana and other cities.

The half-mile leg of the monorail project between the airport and the office project is to be completely financed by Douglas. No public funds will be spent, Gaido said.

The city’s plan, Gaido believes, eliminates any doubt that a mass transit system will be built in Irvine. “That’s really the exciting thing,” Gaido said. “It’s going into the future. The monorail is going to do it.”

But Irvine Planning Commissioner John Carlyle, who abstained from Thursday’s vote because of business dealings with the realty company’s aircraft parent organization, said he is encouraged by the transit credits as long as “there is reality to it.”

Carlyle said he isn’t sure the first link of the monorail was worth it, even though allowances were given for building the first leg.

“I was a little bit bothered by the fact that we’re giving them credit for an 11-story office building for 2,400 linear feet of monorail,” Carlyle said.

The Douglas monorail is planned as the first link in a project that will connect with a five-mile loop around the Irvine business complex. That link will, in turn, be connected to other proposed city and county systems.

So far, Young said, the project has been good for business.

“Well, let me put it this way, we have pre-leased half the building because of the monorail,” Young said. “It’s almost impossible these days to pre-lease a building.”