Apartment City

La Mirage: hilltop site a few blocks from Qualcomm Stadium The Irvine Co. has bought an upscale apartment complex in Mission Valley — the company’s largest single-property acquisition of the year. The Newport Beach- based real estate investor and developer recently closed on the purchase of La Mirage, a 1,410- unit apartment complex just off Interstate 15. The 74- acre hilltop site is a few blocks from Qualcomm Stadium. La Mirage was bought from Chicago- based apartment owner Equity Residential . A sale price for the transaction, which was completed late last month, was not disclosed. The tab would come to about $ 350 million based on a per- apartment price of about $250,000 — the going rate for high- end rental properties in the region. That estimate would put the deal among the most expensive seen in San Diego this year. The county’s priciest real estate sale of any type this year is reported to be La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad. Dallas-based Omni Hote...

We all make choices — building companies or products or communities — around how much control and authority each of the participants has. Do we tightly control our users in order to streamline our product, or do we open up multiple interfaces and allow our users to drive? Do we share our data with others in the belief that a rising tide lifts all boats, or do we hide it to improve our competitive advantage? Do we allow users to deconstruct and reassemble our products, or does that void their warranty? Do we respect current norms of our industry, or do we see the need for disruption? In many instances, these are questions of centralized versus decentralized authority  — who has the right and ability to make choices. Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. —  William Butler Yeats   In this post, we argue that we now have the ability to build more decentralized systems , and that these can often create a competitive advantage over existing solut...