Nexus Cos. Skyline at Macarthur Place website disappears but towers remain

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MightyAlweg_IHB

New member
The website for the Skyline twin luxury condo towers has recently disappeared. I don't know the exact date that the website was pulled, but I'm fairly certain it was sometime in the last few weeks. I do remember looking at it last around Labor Day weekend, as it was a hilarious romp through the delusional minds of bubble developers selling the "OC Luxury Lifestyle!". Seriously funny text and pictures could be found there!



Skyline is/was the twin 25 story towers that have just been completed off MacArthur Blvd. next to the 55 Freeway. They were being developed and constructed by OC developer Curt Olson and his Nexus Companies outfit. Mr. Olson even hosted the intro video on the old www.skylineinoc.com website, and his description of the lavish amenities and pretentious look-at-me attitude of the tower condos offered some of the funniest bits on the old Skyline website. It will be missed.



As recently as late 2007 Skyline's combined 350 units were selling for between $600,000 for the smallest one bedrooms on the bottom floors to $2.7 Million for the penthouse units on the 25th floors. The sales center was closed in late 2007 with an assurance that it would reopen in the spring of '08 "when the market improved". But the sales center never did reopen. And now even the website has been pulled offline. The Nexus Cos. parent website no longer has a mention of Skyline, as the Skyline link just loops right back to the Nexus site.



So now the question is what is going on with these giant twin towers? Construction has wrapped up. The towers are done, and the sales center is still closed. And the towers are sitting there empty, looming above the freeway as a silent, darkened monument to the Great Real Estate Bubble Of The Early 21st Century. What does Nexus do with these things? And what do they do to Nexus? Who maintains them if Nexus can't?



The same questions remain for Central Park West and Astoria Towers just down the 405 Freeway from Skyline. But the twin towers of Skyline will stick out even more than CPW and Astoria. Twin 25 story abandoned buildings are hard to miss.
 
In regards to their website: it looks like they redesigned their site. The link that loops you back is broken, <a href="http://www.nexusd.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=dsp&page=project_detail&section=3&subsection=13&type=d&status=c&recid=13">it should link you here</a>. Which could also explain why the skyline website is gone. They probably took it down while they redesign it too. You know... a fresh and new website can sell, .000000009% more homes.
 
Nice and tasteful elevations. The aesthetic of the twin towers are the best among the OC towers. I do like them. This building type is way too premature for OC. Bad architecture at a good location can be successful while good architecture at a wrong location will fail.
 
So, it's been a month and nothing has changed with Skyline. The website is still offline. The towers are still there, they are completed, and they are entirely vacant. I drove by tonight at 8:00PM and the two towers were just blackened monoliths, with four red FAA lights shining on the top of each tower.



Not a peep from the sales center, and not a peep from the developer, Nexus Companies.



What do you think they'd have to charge in rent to make this twin tower 350 unit complex pencil out?
 
[quote author="MightyAlweg" date=1225200486]What do you think they'd have to charge in rent to make this twin tower 350 unit complex pencil out?</blockquote>


They would need a time machine to blast them to 2023, then the rent might, and I mean might, pencil out.
 
[quote author="Shadax" date=1225228464]Anyone know the financial condition of this project?</blockquote>
I think it's on life support. I believe that Fremont had the construction loan and Lehman was the equity/mez partner, what a winning combination. haha
 
Another project with no good way out. They can't sell them. If they rent them, they will still be way underwater on their debt service. If they sell the project in bulk, all of the equity will be gone and the lender would probably have to take $.70 on the dollar.



Similar to Astoria in Irvine, they probably have some term left on their construction loan and they are just going to wait until that term finishes and hope for a miracle in the interim.
 
[quote author="Joe33" date=1225238516]Another project with no good way out. They can't sell them. If they rent them, they will still be way underwater on their debt service. If they sell the project in bulk, all of the equity will be gone and the lender would probably have to take $.70 on the dollar.



Similar to Astoria in Irvine, they probably have some term left on their construction loan and they are just going to wait until that term finishes and hope for a miracle in the interim.</blockquote>


During the 50's and 60's many well known architects designed beautiful highrise residential buildings. Yamasaki the architect of the Twin World Trade Towers designed multistories in St. Louis and Eichler built the twin towers in South SF were initially targeted the rich but recession changed the destiny of the "projects". The luxury towers became a real project instead after renters moved in and trashed the place. After some 28 years both places were plagued with so much crime the government condemned the structures and had them torn down.



<img src="http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Third_Party_Photo/2007/03/17/1174154804_8951.jpg" alt="" />

Yamasaki's AIA award winning project



<img src="http://www.eichlernetwork.com/images/Story/down_b.jpg" alt="" />

Eichler's leap of faith on high density residential that ended his empire.
 
One person with inside information told my friend that these properties are now bank owned, and it is still being determined what will be done with them since selling them seems to be out of the question.
 
Freedom, you'd have some expensive rental.... I don't think even the rent would be able to cover the maintence costs of such a place. The only way to really make money would be to take a long term loss on these things. But who would be able to withstand that much cash loss? :idunno:



anyways good luck

-bix
 
Learn from the expert. There is no residential highrise on the Irvine Ranch. This building type does not make sense for the financial model in OC. If it made sense then wouldn't you think TIC would be all over it ? All builders follow the wave of TIC and the ripple effect influence neighboring states like Nevada, Arizona and Colorado. The risk takers strayed from the formula are getting themselves into big trouble.



Every 2 months Kevin Pheiffer who conducts model home tours takes homebuilders from across the country to tour Irvine Ranch model homes. Architects and builders from the western states maintain a satellite firm in OC just to keep up with latest trade secrets and prototypes. This is the reason why homes in the neighboring states look like a real bad knock off of OC homes.



Tuscan and Santa Barbara architecture is now in Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Montana, Arizona, Las Vegas and the Tuscan plague is spreading in Dubai, Beijing, Shanghai, Indonesia, Seria, India and Algeria. Oversea commissions are keeping the OC architectural firms alive and OC architects are spreading their favorite Tuscan disease. Eamar who bought John Laing Homes is promoting OC style in the middle east.
 
HOA's for this place was going to be $1,000/month. Looks like they shot themselves in the foot with this project.
 
[quote author="Shooby" date=1225264502]HOA's for this place was going to be $1,000/month. Looks like they shot themselves in the foot with this project.</blockquote>


Before spending $600 millions they should have spent a few thousand dollars to research the projected HOA dies (oops typo) dues before going further.



Check the pool for water before taking a dive Grasshopper.
 
[quote author="Shooby" date=1225242040]One person with inside information told my friend that these properties are now bank owned, and it is still being determined what will be done with them since selling them seems to be out of the question.</blockquote>


why would selling them be out of the question? what else can they do with them, bulldoze them for the land?



at some price, a buyer could rent them out and cash flow positive. the question is, what is that price?



$100M?
 
I meant to say, sell them right now, with the way the market is. I believe they were planning on releasing the first phase of sales this past July, and that was already a hold back due to the tanking market, but obviously they pulled the July date as well. Now that it's bank owned, unless they bring that 600K to 2.2 Mil price tag WAY down, I don't see them selling many of these in the near future.
 
[quote author="Shooby" date=1225242040]One person with inside information told my friend that these properties are now bank owned, and it is still being determined what will be done with them since selling them seems to be out of the question.</blockquote>
Bank owned? I'd be curious who has the keys since the lender is out of business as is the equity/mezz partner. haha The reality is that they had to complete the construction of the towers because that would result in the highest possible value for the owner.
 
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