When completed, the mixed-use Town Center project, located at 24331 El Toro Rd. will consist of two office buildings, a 140-room Countryside Inn hotel, a restaurant, two retail buildings and the new three-story 40,000-sf medical building that Mark IV is building. Parking will have a 6.67:1 ratio, with a private doctors' parking area. Groundbreaking on the medical building is scheduled for May 2001, with occupancy of the new space beginning the first quarter of 2002.

The entire first floor of the medical building has been pre-leased to South County Orthopedic Specialists, which will be relocating from its current facility in Laguna Hills. Details of the lease transaction were not available at press time; however, industry sources say office space in the area averages about $2.50 per sf for full-service facilities, which would make the deal worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 million per year.

Brad Rawlins of Lee & Associates' Irvine office worked in cooperation with Carol Trapani and Omar Dauod of CB Richard Ellis' Newport Beach office on the land sale. Rawlins represented both Mark IV and South County Orthopedic in the lease transaction.