"What do you want our community to become?"
Councilmember Benjamin Yu asked his colleagues that question on July 7, 2026, shortly before the Lake Forest City Council voted 4–1 to let a warehouse go up next to The Meadows. He was the only no vote. He said the city already has a lot of warehouses and that more are coming. The project at 26200 Enterprise Way is now approved, and the vote shows something about Lake Forest that buyers rarely hear about. Many of the city's aging office buildings are being demolished and replaced. The zoning already on each site decides most of what gets built there.
The zoning was there first
The Meadows sits on 126 acres south of Bake Parkway. The land used to be a plant nursery. Today the community has more than 500 single-family homes, 65 senior affordable apartments and seven public parks. The City Council approved it in 2020, and the first residents moved in a couple of years later.
The office property next door had light industrial zoning long before The Meadows had residential zoning. Panasonic used to occupy the site. The developer, IPT Enterprise Business Center LLC, applied in June 2021 to tear down the vacant 144,906-square-foot building and replace it with a 165,803-square-foot industrial building on 8.83 acres. According to Voice of OC, the building has about 10,000 square feet of office space, 65,000 square feet for manufacturing, 90,000 square feet of warehouse and 23 truck loading areas.
Developer spokesperson Chris Sanford told the council the proposal is fully consistent with the existing zoning code and general plan. The certified environmental review found significant environmental effects. The city approved the project anyway, with mitigation measures and a Statement of Overriding Considerations. Residents and nearby property owners appealed the Planning Commission's approval. One of the appellants spoke for the group, saying the objection was to massive warehouses built directly next to homes, not to warehouses generally.
Organized opposition still won the neighborhood real concessions. The developer agreed to these conditions:
- A quiet zone in the area closest to the homes from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., with no truck backup alarms or engine idling during those hours
- No more than 15 trucks per hour during the day and four per hour at night
- A wall, trees and other design concessions that Councilmember Scott Voigts mentioned when he voted yes
The building still has no tenant. It was designed for a wide range of uses allowed under light industrial zoning. That means nobody can yet say exactly what kind of business will operate behind that wall.
Why office buildings are being replaced
Office demand drives these projects. Lake Forest owners have struggled to fill office space and have had an easier time filling industrial space. Commercial brokerage research for the second quarter of 2026 puts total office vacancy in the Lake Forest/Foothill Ranch submarket at 13.1%. Availability is much higher, at 22.6%. Availability counts all space being marketed for lease, including space whose tenants have not moved out yet. Average office asking rent there was $2.44 per square foot per month on a full-service basis, compared with $3.01 in the neighboring Irvine Spectrum submarket.
Industrial space in the same submarket was tighter in Q2 2026, with 5.1% direct vacancy. The same data also shows Lake Forest/Foothill Ranch industrial space lost 145,032 square feet of occupied space during the quarter. Warehouse demand is not unlimited. It is just stronger than office demand, and that is enough for a landowner to decide to demolish an empty building.
This is happening across Orange County. About 2.68 million square feet of office space was demolished for other uses from 2021 through 2025, and about 590,000 more in the first half of 2026. Another 5.4 million square feet is planned for demolition from the second half of 2026 onward.
Where each Lake Forest site stands as of September 30, 2026
The city publishes a planning projects status report that tracks every application. Here is where the key sites stood on that report today.
| Site | What is proposed | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 26200 Enterprise Way | 165,803 sq ft industrial building replacing the former Panasonic building | Approved by City Council July 7, 2026, after appeal |
| 26110, 26140 and 26160 Enterprise Way | Two industrial buildings totaling 156,800 sq ft replacing three office buildings | Pending environmental review |
| 26250 Enterprise Way | 77,000 sq ft warehouse and office building replacing a 76,978 sq ft office building | Pending environmental review |
| 26000 Commercentre | 198 townhome and rowtown condominiums replacing the PSC/ARB industrial buildings | Deemed complete September 21, 2026, pending environmental review |
| 26521, 26541 and 26561 Rancho Parkway South | 145 duplex and townhome-style units replacing three business-park buildings | Deemed incomplete July 23, 2026 |
| 26602 Towne Centre Drive | Costco warehouse of about 165,068 sq ft replacing the former Regal/Cinemark theater | Approved by City Council March 17, 2026, after appeal |
Western Realco is behind the two Enterprise Way industrial projects that are still pending, and both applications date back to 2021. The IPT building took more than five years to get from its first application to a final council decision. For a buyer, that lag matters. A site can sit in review for years, and how it looks during your showing says little about the next decade.
The other outcome is new housing
The same economics are producing housing on other sites. That puts new supply into the same market as the resale homes nearby. The Lennar Homes of California proposal at Commercentre and Civic Centre Drive includes 198 condominiums. Twenty would be priced for moderate-income households. Lennar has requested a density bonus to reduce parking requirements and setbacks along Commercentre Drive. The Rancho Parkway South project, filed through EPD Solutions, would put 145 duplex and townhome-style units on land that is now a business park. The Orange County Register also reported in June 2025 on an application to replace Town Center Plaza, the former loanDepot headquarters at 26632 Towne Centre Drive, with 181 attached units. That one does not appear in the status table above, so its current standing is unconfirmed.
Demand for this kind of housing is clear. Newmark's Q2 2026 Orange County research estimates that only 16% of aspiring homebuyers in the county could afford a median-priced home, and that apartment occupancy was about 96%. New attached homes on former office land give buyers another entry point. They also compete with existing condos and townhomes in central Lake Forest. That matters to a seller who plans to list in the next few years, because a nearby business park could become a new neighborhood of townhomes.
So, as of September 2026, Lake Forest's business parks are heading three ways: industrial buildings on Enterprise Way, attached housing on Commercentre and Rancho Parkway South, and big-box retail on Towne Centre Drive. Each outcome follows from the zoning and approvals on that particular parcel.
What to check before you write an offer
None of this is legal advice. These steps use public tools any buyer can access, and they fit easily into a contingency period.
- Look up nearby addresses on the city's status report. The Lake Forest Planning Projects Status Report lists applications by street address, applicant and current status. If a nearby building is vacant, search its address.
- Find out the zoning of the parcels next to the home. At The Meadows, the zoning on the neighboring land was older than the homes and decided the outcome. The listing description will not tell you this.
- Read the environmental filing for any pending project. State CEQA records, like the notice for 26200 Enterprise Way, list the project's size, the findings and the date the city acted.
- Plan for years, not months. Both Western Realco applications were filed in 2021 and were still in environmental review in September 2026.
- Read local coverage of council hearings. Voice of OC's report on the July vote includes the conditions of approval, which are the details that will affect daily life nearby.
Quick answers
Is the 26200 Enterprise Way warehouse under construction? The city's status report lists it as approved by the City Council on July 7, 2026. The report does not show construction status, and the developer said in July that there was no tenant yet.
Is the Lake Forest Costco approved? Yes. The City Council denied an appeal and approved the project on March 17, 2026. Costco plans to demolish the former Regal/Cinemark theater at 26602 Towne Centre Drive.
Will the Commercentre condos include below-market units? The application proposes 20 of the 198 units for moderate-income households. The project was still in environmental review as of September 30, 2026.
If you're thinking about buying near Enterprise Way, Commercentre, Rancho Parkway South or Towne Centre Drive, Raul Vega can look up the pending applications and zoning around any home on your list before you make an offer, in English or Spanish. Let's Connect.
