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Auto Dealership Owner Buys Closed Miramar Theatre

Marc Spizzirri, co-owner of the San Juan Capistrano-based Family Automotive Group Inc. chain of dealerships, has bought San Clemente’s old Miramar Theatre.

Spizzirri paid $5.3 million for the unused site, which sits at the northern end of the city below the under-development Marblehead home and stores project. It’s next to land that Lab Holdings LLC, developer of The Lab and The Camp in Costa Mesa, plans for a boutique hotel.

The Miramar, built in 1937, is one of the first buildings you’ll see when driving south into the city along the beach. It’s also one of the more run-down buildings, and has been vacant for more than a decade. It sold for $200 per foot.

The new owner is reportedly looking to demolish the back part of the building that was once a bowling alley, while keeping the rest of the theater closer to its old design.

Previous owners had considered building more than 40,000 square feet of shops and homes at the site, but ran into issues with local residents, who would like to see the landmark restored.

This wouldn’t be the first tough redevelopment project that Spizzirri has attempted. In 2004, he announced plans to build a $10 million, four-story showroom along the Pacific Coast Highway in Dana Point for his Family Classic Cars.

That project stalled last year and he ended up selling the land.

The seller of the Miramar, a local developer, was represented by Dennis Weisberg and Jack Hopkins of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services’ Newport Beach office.


Konica Renews

Konica Minolta Graphic Imaging USA Inc., part of Japan’s Konica Minolta Holding Inc., renewed the lease on its 60,146-square-foot West Coast distribution center in Lake Forest.

The deal runs for five years. Konica Minolta has leased the space, on Atlantic Ocean Drive, for the past 12 years. Konica uses the distribution center to warehouse and distribute analog and digital films, graphics arts papers, printing plates, processing chemicals and other materials to distributors throughout the West Coast.

Jeff Cannon, Tim Schramm and Paul Jones of Studley Inc.’s Irvine office represented Konica Minolta in the lease. The building’s owner, ProLogis, was represented in-house by Jeff Foster.


Buchanan in Houston

Real estate investment bank Buchanan Street Partners of Newport Beach and Los Angeles-based Lowe Enterprises bought 3D/International Tower, a 21-story office tower in Houston’s Galleria submarket.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The building’s seller, Transwestern, paid a reported $42 million for the tower in 2002.

The 28-year-old building runs 406,415 square feet, and is about 90% full. Monthly rents at the property run about $2.20 per square foot.

It’s the first purchase that Buchanan Street and Lowe Enterprises, another real estate investor with about $3 billion under management, have worked on together.

Meanwhile, Buchanan Street is planning to sell a majority stake in the company to Los Angeles-based TCW Group Inc, according to sources familiar with the deal.

TCW, an investment manager that’s part of France’s Soci & #233;t & #233; G & #233;n & #233;rale, is paying an undisclosed amount for a 51% stake in Buchanan Street.

The deal is expected to close by year’s end, according to sources.

Buchanan Street’s executive team, led by chief executive Robert Brunswick, is set to remain following the acquisition.


Apartment Market Still Improving

A wobbly housing market this year hasn’t taken that much of a toll on Orange County’s apartment market.

In the past year, the median price of an OC apartment has increased 3.9% to $175,000, according to a report from the local office of Marcus & Millichap.

Tight conditions and steady revenue growth are offsetting higher borrowing costs, the brokerage said.

Monthly asking rents are forecast to finish 2007 up 6.3% to $1,544 per month, while effective rents will gain 6% to $1,495 per month. Right now, asking rents run about $1,519 and effective rents are $1,479.

For the highest-end apartments, rents now run $1,773 per month, which is up 4.1% from a year ago. That’s still $2,200 per month less than the monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced OC home, assuming traditional financing, the report said.

There are some signs of a slowdown due to the credit crunch of recent months. The amount of apartment sales is down about 8% from a year earlier, with a more pronounced slowdown in recent months, the report said.

The average capitalization rate for OC’s apartment deals this year has inched up into the high-4% to low-5% range for the year. But more recent deals have seen cap rates averaging in the mid-5% to low-6% range.

Marcus & Millichap predicts the vacancy rate for the county’s apartment market will end 2007 at 3.5%, up 20 basis points for the year.

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Mark Mueller
Mark Mueller
Mark is the Editor-in-Chief of the Orange County Business Journal, one of the premier regional business newspapers in the country. He’s the fifth person to hold the editor’s position in the paper’s long history. He oversees a staff of about 15 people. The OCBJ is considered a must-read for area business executives. The print edition of the paper is the primary source of local news for most of the Business Journal’s subscribers, which includes most of OC’s major corporate and community players. Mark’s been with the paper since 2005, and long served as the real estate reporter for the paper, breaking hundreds of commercial and residential real estate stories. He took on the editor’s position in 2018.
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