[quote author="marquee owner" date=1221388270]Interesting forum. Yes, I am an owner of a unit at Marquee. 4th floor unit, $590,000 purchase price. We have had it leased for 2+ years now and the current rent is $2,750. We are underwater by about $200 a month, or $700 a month if I factor in the annual property taxes. It is not a pretty situation, but there is still no decent for-sale market. I bought several pre-construction condos in San Diego and flipped out of each one immediately upon completion. Did very well on each one. This is the only one I have left and no more in contract. This Irvine project has been a debacle, primarily because of timing, but also because of the HOA's which are absurdly high as has been pointed out in this forum. Like all luxury buildings the HOA includes all of the common area amenities, insurance, gas, water. The big expense is people -- concierge, 24-hour guards, housekeeping, etc. The HOA in this building should be about $700 but unfortunately we are on the hook for a huge monthly payment to Maquire Properties (master developer of Park Place) for a "cross easement." What an idiotic thing to saddle the homeowners with. Bosa should have paid for the cross easement and why on earth would it be so expensive that it consumes about 1/3 of the total HOA budget? That's something like $1,000,000 per year! The HOA has filed suit against Maguire and Bosa over this issue but of course it will be many years before anything is decided and probably only the lawyers will profit from the action. I never intended to own the condo for more than a few weeks or months so quite frankly I did not pay attention.
Compared to Bosa's projects in San Diego, Marquee's design is horrible. Within a few months of opening, the owners were so unimpressed with the lobby and common areas that we all complained to Nat Bosa and he gutted the lobby and re-did it at a cost of (I think) almost $1,000,000. It is better now. Originally it had all of the ambiance of a hospital corridor, right down to expensive flooring that looked exactly like.....hospital vinyl flooring! The city of Irvine really hurt the building too with ridiculous building codes requiring big ugly exit signs everywhere in the hallways, ugly industrial looking fire doors everywhere, etc. It seems that they had never approved a high rise residential tower before and just applied office building codes instead. The buildings in San Diego have the same life safety features but they are much more subtle, as they should be in a residential building.
Anyhow, we will sell when/if the market in this building firms up some, or if we lose our excellent tenant. At our basis we should be able to break even on a sale today. Of course we will have lost a lot of money overall given the years of negative carry. Not all investments work out. I am not emotionally attached and will sell for a loss and not lose any sleep. Of course, I wish I had never received the invitation from Bosa to buy in Irvine. I wish I had never heard of Irvine. Yes, they catered to and encourage speculation. When they deny that they are lying.
As for the location, I actually think it is excellent. Of course it is not on the water...that's different buyer/market. The location is all about business and minimizing the commute. For that, it is fantastic. That's why my tenant moved in and stayed. He had been commuting from San Clemente and it was taking years off his life. Now he is 5 minutes from his office very happy. He is a CEO who travels a lot...he is a couple of minutes from the airport. There are many millions of SF of high quality offices within a half mile diameter of the project. Companies could/should buy or lease units as temporary executive housing.
Long term, I still believe that the project will stabilize, because the location is so good. Will it stabilize at lower prices? Probably...since the HOA fees imply a significant discount to prices. Also, the crappy financing market today implies a further discount since lenders are reluctant to lend of high rise condo units, particularly if there is a high proportion of non owner-occupied units. Over time, inflation will help on the other side of the equation.
Cheers,</blockquote>
Thank you for sharing your story as an owner. Now I understand why the HOA is so expensive (I was not aware of the cross easement). But that raises the question, why do the Plaza highrises off Jamboree and Campus have $1,100+ HOA dues?
