REAL ESTATE : Tenant Interest High in Mola Corp.’s Irvine Condominium Tower

Everyone knows high-rise condominium towers won’t fly in suburban Orange County, that most people won’t buy anything higher than three stories. Or will they?

Mola Development Corp. says it has a list of 350 people who have expressed interest in the 164 units in Mola’s 15-story high-rise in Irvine. And it hasn’t even been built yet.

As many as three dozen of those names represent businesses looking for corporate housing.

Why the interest?

“If you were building it in the middle of nowhere, you’d die,” says Timothy N. Roberts, director of operations for the Irvine developer.

But with traffic a major problem in Orange County, “a lot of people are looking for a place where they can work, shop for food, go to a nightclub or a movie or work out without getting in the car,” says Roberts.

Mola Centre, at Jamboree Road and Campus Drive not far from John Wayne Airport, will have a 21-story office tower and a parking garage with a facade of boutiques, theaters, a spa, a nightclub and a day-care center, as well as the condo tower and some more low-slung housing as well.

Mola said this week that it will probably start construction of the office tower, garage and condo tower, which would be the county’s tallest residential building, early next year.