A joint venture of Tishman Speyer and Mitsui Fudosan Americas started construction on the 380K SF first phase of Bake Freeway Business Park, an industrial development in Irvine.

Tishman Speyer and MFA secured an $84.75M construction loan from JPMorgan Chase to help finance the first two buildings in the project. The financing was arranged by CBRE Vice Chair Val Achtemeier and Senior Vice President Greg Grant.

Completion of the first two buildings at 15700 and 15800 Bake Parkway is expected in the third quarter of 2025. The site is adjacent to the intersection of the 405 and 5 freeways.

“Bake Freeway Business Park will bring brand new industrial space to a location that has been historically underserved with new, Class A product,” Tishman Speyer Managing Director Andy Burke said in a statement.

The Irvine submarket has a 3.2% vacancy rate. As of the third quarter, it had nothing under construction, according to CBRE data. Overall, Orange County industrial vacancy rose from 2.1% in Q2 to 2.9% in Q3, above the 15-year average of 2.3%. As in other SoCal industrial markets, Orange County occupiers were reevaluating their space needs and shedding square footage in Q3.

The Tishman-MFA JV acquired the fully entitled, 31.9-acre development site in December 2023 and announced the purchase in January. A purchase price wasn't disclosed, but public records indicate the JV paid $145.9M for the site, The Real Deal reported at the time. The land is in the Great Park Neighborhoods area of Irvine, and the seller was Five Point Holdings.

Upon completion, Bake Freeway will include four buildings ranging from 73K SF to 203K SF for a total of approximately 600K SF of Class-A space.

The Tishman-MFA joint venture launched in 2022 with an initial commitment of $500M, the firms announced at the time.