A New Concept in Lifestyle-Driven Workspace Takes Flight at Tustin Legacy
This summer brought the addition of an exciting new chapter to the story of Tustin Legacy, the master planned development where commercial and residential projects now thrive on the site of a decommissioned U.S. Marine Corps Air Base, all within view of majestic aircraft hangars. This latest addition, aptly named FLIGHT at Tustin Legacy, is a project destined to redefine the way work and lifestyle come together.
Under development by Lincoln Property Company and Alcion Ventures, FLIGHT at Tustin Legacy will be a 38-acre, state-of-the-art creative office campus featuring innovative design, decentralized indoor-outdoor meeting spaces, and open work spaces with ceilings that soar to a height of 37 feet. Located adjacent to the new, 26-acre Tustin Legacy Park, FLIGHT will also feature amenities such as retail space, a conference center, and the much anticipated Mess Hall Market, described as “a 12,000-square-foot chef-driven, curated market food hall.”
Eschewing the traditional high-rise office format, the two-phased project is planned to include 18 low-rise office buildings, each no taller than four stories and designed in an “incubator style” to foster collaboration. The footprint of the buildings allows for tenants and their visitors to utilize adjacent outdoor patios and enter the buildings directly from outside paths, by-passing the traditional concept of a central lobby.
In planning the FLIGHT at Tustin Legacy project, the developers are well positioned to capitalize on the growth of small and mid-size companies that have made California a leader in job and new business creation. As reported recently in the Orange County Register, California added 46,413 small companies from 2014-2017, second only to Florida. The state added 5,325 mid-size companies during the same period, beating Texas to the top of that list. California added 97 large companies during the same period, second only to New York. However, it is the small companies – those with annual sales under $10 million – that have a unique opportunity to secure the kind of modern workspaces that have been coveted by start-ups, but were previously difficult to swing financially.
“This is an exciting milestone in creating what will be a dynamic employment hub in the area,” says Parke Miller, executive vice president of Lincoln Property Company. “There will be truly nothing like it in Orange County, and maybe anywhere in the greater Western United States. The location, architecture and amenity package is extraordinary, and no other office property has a public park as its backyard. Prospective tenants may be most impressed with how efficient the buildings space plan is, creating occupancy cost savings as a result of needing to take less rentable square feet at FLIGHT than typical office product. The overall value proposition is significant.”
With favorable market conditions and a promising vision, FLIGHT at Tustin Legacy’s developers still faced tremendous work prior to the project getting underway, including the need to secure millions in construction bonds. Before construction could begin, project planners turned to Performance Bonding, a Tustin-based surety firm with experience in securing construction bonds for other very large developments at decommissioned military sites, including Heritage Fields El Toro, as well as Candlestick/Hunter’s Point and Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Erik Johansson, president of Performance Bonding, says that the complexities of dealing with such sites and working with many stakeholders can be intense. “If you don’t have that specialized experience, there is definitely a learning curve,” he explains. “You have to know the regulations, the specific language and the permitting and bond requirements.” For FLIGHT at Tustin Legacy, Performance Bonding helped the project’s backers to secure the initial improvement bonds required to move forward, while helping them anticipate the additional bond requirements and costs that would need to be factored in.
Now with construction in full swing, the development’s Phase 1 is set to be completed in late 2018. The initial phase, spread across 17.5 acres, will include four four-story buildings, a constellation of four “incubator-style” buildings called the Platform Campus, the Mess Hall Market and a high tech conference center, for a total of ten buildings providing 470,000 square feet of mixed use space.
“This was a rare opportunity in Orange County to acquire a large centrally-located land parcel adjacent to substantial retail and residential uses,” says Mark Potter, co-founder and partner of Alcion Ventures. “FLIGHT is more than office space — it will be an unmatched creative office environment for businesses and their employees who will be able to dine, exercise, socialize and enjoy the outdoors within the project.”
Despite the descriptive language the developers use to explain FLIGHT at Tustin Legacy, it may be difficult to imagine how groundbreaking the project is without some visuals. A project website, www.flight-tustin.com, features stunning virtual reality videos that give a sense of the space and the feel of the complex.
FLIGHT at Tustin Legacy is not the first joint endeavor in Orange County for the Lincoln Property Company and Alcion Ventures team. The project follows on the heels of the partners’ trend-forward redevelopment of TRADE Marketplace & Food Hall in Irvine at 2222 Michelson Drive in Irvine.
For more information about Lincoln Property Company, contact executive vice president Parke Miller at pmiller@lpc.com or 949.333.2111.
For more information about Performance Bonding, the surety consultant for FLIGHT at Tustin Legacy and many other marquis projects nationwide, contact president Erik Johansson at info@performancebonding.com or 714.505.7011.
For more information about Alcion Ventures, please visit www.alcionventures.com.
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