Inside Irvine's Newest Great Park Neighborhoods

Around Town

If you haven't driven through the Great Park Neighborhoods lately, you'd be forgiven for not recognizing it. What started as a former Marine base is, in real time, becoming one of the most ambitious master-planned communities in the country — and the newest villages going up right now are the most amenity-rich the community has built yet. Add a 1,300-acre municipal park taking shape next door and a brand-new retail and dining destination on the way, and it's easy to see why this corner of Irvine keeps drawing buyers from across Southern California.

Here's what's actually happening on the ground, and why it matters if you're thinking about a move.

Luna Park: The Newest Chapter

Luna Park is the community's eighth neighborhood, and it's where most of the newest construction energy is concentrated right now. The draw isn't just the homes — it's the lifestyle wrapped around them. Luna Park is built around a 13-acre park and packs in amenities the earlier villages don't have: four pickleball courts (the only ones in Great Park Neighborhoods), a handball court, three basketball half-courts, heritage trees, and community gathering spaces designed to actually pull neighbors together.

Several builders are selling collections within Luna Park, with new home designs ranging from attached townhomes and duplexes to three-story single-family homes built for entertaining. Pricing across the newest Great Park collections generally starts in the low-to-mid $1.2 millions and climbs from there depending on size, collection, and lot. With multiple builders releasing phases on different timelines, there's genuine variety here — different floor plans, price points, and move-in windows — which is rare for a community this new.

A standout: Toll Brothers opened its newest master plan within Great Park Neighborhoods, debuting five distinct collections with home designs spanning roughly 1,470 to over 3,770 square feet, from three-story condominiums up to spacious detached homes with 3 to 7 bedrooms. It's positioned as the luxury tier of the community — and notably, it sits within walking distance of the future retail district everyone's talking about.

The Canopy: The Missing Piece

For years, the knock on new master-planned communities was that they had beautiful homes and great parks but nowhere to go — you still had to drive to the Spectrum for a coffee or a bite. The Canopy is the answer to that, and it's the development I get the most questions about.

The Canopy is a roughly 12-acre experiential retail and dining destination — over 90,000 square feet of shops, restaurants, and everyday essentials — being built in the heart of the community. The vision isn't a strip mall; it's designed as a walkable "community living room," the connective tissue that turns a collection of neighborhoods into a true town center.

The tenant lineup is what makes it exciting:

• T&T Supermarket — the beloved Asian grocery giant making its U.S. debut, anchoring the center

• In-N-Out Burger — because it's California

• Philz Coffee and Chicha San Chen (the acclaimed Taiwanese tea house)

• H&H Bagels — the famous New York institution coming west

• A food hall built into retrofitted historic WWII aircraft hangars, blending the site's military history with modern design

Current timelines point to The Canopy coming online in late 2026 into early 2027. Once it opens, residents will be able to walk to groceries, coffee, and dinner — and that "walk, don't drive" convenience is exactly the kind of feature that supports long-term home values.

The Bigger Picture: Great Park Itself

Wrapping all of this is the Orange County Great Park — on track to become one of the largest municipal parks in the United States at a planned 1,300+ acres, dwarfing many of the country's most famous urban parks. Residents already enjoy the FivePoint Event Center, the Great Park Balloon ride, Great Park Ice, sports fields, a water park, the Farm + Food Lab, and miles of trails weaving the neighborhoods together. More is on the way, including museums and additional cultural amenities.

There's also the school factor: the community sits within the top-rated Irvine Unified School District, which remains one of the single biggest reasons families target this area specifically.

What This Means If You're Considering a Move

The newest Great Park neighborhoods offer something genuinely hard to find: brand-new construction, resort-level amenities, top schools, and — soon — a walkable retail and dining core, all in one master plan. Whether new construction is the right path for you (versus a resale in an established Irvine village) really comes down to your timeline, your priorities on price and customization, and how the builder incentives stack up against the resale market at any given moment.

That's a conversation worth having with someone who tracks both sides of this market daily. If you're weighing a new build at Great Park against a resale in Portola Springs, Orchard Hills, or elsewhere in Irvine, I can walk you through the real tradeoffs — pricing, timelines, resale dynamics, and which collections are actually worth the premium.

Chris Kwon | Kwon Home Group Your guide to Irvine's master-planned communities.