Opus is getting ready to sell its new Irvine Concourse office tower

Orange County’s newest office tower is going on the block.

Phoenix-based Opus West Corp. plans to begin marketing its 12-story Opus Center Irvine building at The Irvine Concourse, according to sources. The real estate development company is in the final stages of talks with Eastdil Realty, a brokerage firm that would offer the building to prospective buyers. A marketing package on the building at 2020 Main St. should go out to potential investors soon, sources said.

Paul Marshall, senior vice president of real estate development for Opus West, declined to confirm or deny that the 260,000-square-foot tower will be put up for sale. “We really don’t go into any development with a predetermined (exit) strategy, as evidenced by the fact that we keep some product,” he said. “Sometimes, however, we sell to (investment) funds we manage and sometimes we sell to the third-party market.”

Opus West’s decision to sell the building, completed last year, did not shock many people. Unlike most development companies, Opus West provides its own equity in many deals, and the company has not been known as a long-term holder of real estate. Opus West regularly sells its properties to fund new development opportunities, real estate observers pointed out.

“Opus rarely keeps anything,” said George Economos, an office broker with NAI/Capital Commercial. “Their M.O. is to build and sell and buy more land. That’s usually what Opus does.”

That strategy certainly would fit in with Opus West’s plans for the Irvine Concourse, which call for a total of three high-rise buildings at the masterplanned office park at the corner of MacArthur Boulevard and Main Street. When completed, Opus West will have added more than 930,000 square feet to the development.

Opus West also has developed four low-rise office buildings totaling more than 425,000 square feet, three of which have been sold. Opus West has already agreed to sell the fourth, set for completion next month, to Black