Apartment developers declare 'amenity wars'

Residents of The Marke apartments soon will be able to choose between cocktails at the rooftop pool while watching a movie or exercising with a personal trainer at the nearby fitness center.

Without leaving the newly built complex, they can get their pets groomed at the pet spaw, buy snacks at an in-house store or go bowling in the upstairs gaming arcade. Or they can just stay home and summon one of the complex's on-call massage therapists.

Orange County is undergoing an apartment-building boom. At least 18 big complexes, with a total of 8,800 units, are planned for Orange County over the next three or four years.

Developers are rebounding from years of slow apartment growth, spurred by a growing number of renters and high occupancy rates.

The sudden increase is likely to help tenants by keeping rents in check. But there's nothing cheap about most of the complexes. To offset high construction costs, developers are building luxury units, offering the finest pampering that rent dollars can buy.

The amenity wars are in full swing, said Bill Montgomery, president of multifamily acquisitions for developer Sares-Regis Group of Irvine.

Common areas have more private spaces. Complexes offer more entertainment and meeting areas. There are large, commercial-level fitness facilities, Internet cafs and resort-level pool-spa spaces.

Developers expect to complete at least 3,200 new units in Orange County this year. Apartment tracker MFP Research in Dallas has data showing that as many as 5,035 units could be completed in 2014 the most in at least two decades.

Building permits issued last year for multifamily developments which includes apartments hit a high not seen since 1990.

In raw numbers, it's a lot, said Frank Suryan Jr., chairman and CEO of Newport Beach-based Lyon Communities, which is building The Marke and another luxury apartment project in Santa Ana.

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Apartment developers declare 'amenity wars'