A plum industrial parcel in Camarillo may soon be converted into a 450-unit apartment complex as demand grows in the small Ventura County city for larger multifamily buildings. Fairfield Residential Co. LLC, a San Diego developer, is seeking final approval next month to build its Village Gateway complex on 20 acres that was the site of a computer-data and storage company for more than 40 years. The project, which could cost about $90 million, is targeting young professionals, millennials and even empty nesters as demographics in the traditional bedroom community change. “This type of development answers a lot of needs for the community. We obviously see some demand,” said Ed McCoy, a Fairfield vice president. “This is going to be a nice place to live.” Fairfield is a large-scale operator of apartment buildings, with more than 50,000 units in 20 states in its portfolio. Valley-area holdings include the Carabella at Warner Center Apartments in Woodland Hills and Rancho Corrales in Simi Valley. Village Gateway will feature a clubhouse, multiple outdoor pool areas and a fitness center. The units will be a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units, with rents ranging from about $1,600 to more than $2,500 a month. Fairfield received approval last month to change the zoning at the 350 S. Lewis Road site from industrial to high-density residential, paving the way for the project to move forward. But the Camarillo Planning Commission wasn’t happy with the design, saying there wasn’t enough open space. Fairfield will go back before the commission Dec. 3 with a redesigned project to seek final approval. McCoy hopes to start construction on Village Gateway late next year, with construction taking about 26 months. But one local broker isn’t sure Fairfield will find renters once its complex is complete. “Where are those tenants going to come from? It’s not a proven marketplace for apartment living,” said Rod Delson, senior vice president and multifamily expert at the Westlake Village office of NAI Capital Inc., who is not involved in the deal. “But Fairfield is a smart group, so they must know what they’re doing.” Path to construction The land has a long history in Camarillo. Publicly traded storage and data security firm Imation Corp. of Oakdale, Minn. operated on the site since the 1960s. It shuttered its facility in 2008, laying off some 140 people. Jim Meaney, first vice president at the Camarillo office of CBRE Group Inc. and listing broker on the deal, originally set out to sell the land to an industrial user who would either rehab or tear down the plant and construct a big industrial park. But after more than a year of looking for the buyer, Fairfield approached him with the idea of building an apartment complex on the Imation site. Early in 2011, Imation demolished the plant to make the space more appealing as a land sale. Ken Kadet, public relations manager for Imation, said the demolition cost $7 million but was offset by the revenue from selling all the scrap metal and materials generated. The asking price for the land was $14 million, and though McCoy wouldn’t disclose how much his firm paid, an annual report by Imation stated the developer paid $10.5 million. In July 2011, Fairfield went into escrow on the property contingent upon receiving city approval to construct Village Gateway. Fairfield intends to develop 20 of the 28 acres and sell the remainder. The sale should close escrow on Dec. 12, assuming Fairfield receives its approvals at the next Planning Commission meeting, said Meaney, who has been frustrated by the delays. “The city keeps talking about creating jobs, but converting their best industrial land to residential means they’re not very serious about it,” he said. “Nothing comes easy with the city of Camarillo. This all took a lot longer than it should have.” One issue that slowed down the proposal was the placement of the low-income units, which will total 5 percent and allow the developer to avoid installing RV parking, which is required at a one spot per five unit ratio by the city. The original Fairfield proposal called for 378 units on a 16-acre parcel, with 100 low-income units on the adjacent four-acre parcel. After design concerns were posed by the Planning Commission last month, Fairfield is now mixing the low-income units into the project. Senior Planner Steve Mitchell said next month’s meeting should end the lengthy process to build Camarillo. “To this point, the developer has been very responsive. I’m expecting them to stay on schedule and deliver a project that we can support,” he said. Village Gateway Another reason for the delay is the allotment process developers have to go through in Camarillo. The city allows for a maximum of 400 residential units to be constructed each year, but there has been a recent surge of development that has forced Fairfield to wait in line. Adjacent to the Village Gateway site, Oxnard developer Hiji Investment Co. received approval last month to build 83 units. And with construction beginning this summer to build hundreds of apartments and homes as part of the city’s Springville Specific Plan, the line is getting longer. Several developers, including AMLI Residential of Chicago and Rancho Associates of Beverly Hills, will replace more than 100 acres of farm fields with both single-family homes and multifamily units as part of the plan. Since the city will not allow any one developer to claim more than 60 percent of the 400 units allowed each year, it will take at least two rounds of allotments for Fairfield to get all its units approved. Between Fairfield, Hiji and the Springville developments, that could mean more than 900 units coming to Camarillo. The rush of development comes as the city grows, with quality schools, a growing university and a quick commute to the San Fernando Valley. And though Delson, the broker, is still skeptical that there are enough tenants for such large-scale development, he said Camarillo does have advantages. “It’s a very nice community and you can still live there and do things in L.A. or the Valley,” he said. “And the prices they can offer out in Camarillo are much more competitive than the new stuff in Warner Center.” There also is the issue of the growing Cal State Channel Islands campus. The school opened in 2002 and has seen its enrollment rise from fewer than 500 undergraduate students its first year to nearly 5,000 last year. The Fairfield development, with its premium rents, is not aimed at the students, but other developers are likely keeping an eye on the campus. “At full build-out, CSUCI is anticipated to have 15,000 students, up from approximately 5,000 today,” said Dave Norman, community development director for the city. “Understanding how many of those students will be needing off-campus housing will be important for planning housing need.”
Project Wakes Bedroom Town
