Lusardi Construction won the contract to build the Hilton Garden Inn – John Wayne Airport at 2381 Morse Avenue, in Irvine, CA. The grading has begun for the five-story hotel that will provide 170 rooms and will be one of the closest hotels to the airport. Lusardi has had a few delays with the heavy clay based soil and as incredible as this may seem, a vandal stole the copper wire in the power lines to the construction trailer, so the crew has been without power. How did they manage to pull that off without being electrocuted?
The extended-stay hotel near the 405 freeway will have basic amenities, but no destination services such as a restaurant, retailer or large convention center that would attract visitors who aren’t hotel guests. 
Parking spaces will slim down as a greater percentage of its parking spaces will be “long-term” spaces which are half a foot narrower than typical spaces, which are 9 feet wide. It is presumed that guests who stay at the hotel for business won’t drive in and out as much as at other hotels. Furthermore, two hotel shuttles will take guests to major services within five miles of the hotel, and two iShuttle stations are just around the corner. City code only allows 25 percent of hotel parking spaces to be long-term. Office buildings get 90 percent. Because of the shuttle services, the new Hilton will now get 47 percent long-term, divided between the hotel’s surface parking lot and underground parking.
The anticipated completion date is late 2014.