Latham & Watkins LLP, Orange County’s fifth-largest law firm by attorney count, has renewed its lease at Center Tower in Costa Mesa.
The L.A.-based law firm, which counts 31 offices around the world, signed a 65,000-square-foot deal at Center Tower, a 21-story office next to South Coast Plaza that is OC’s tallest office building. The extension runs through 2025 and will keep Latham & Watkins in the top three floors of the 462,191-square-foot building, which is run by C.J. Segerstrom & Sons.
“We could not be more pleased with our location and the long-standing relationship we have enjoyed with Center Tower and the Segerstrom family,” said R. Scott Shean, Latham & Watkins’ managing partner.
The latest lease is a step down in space from Latham & Watkins’ last reported lease signed at the office, located at 650 Town Center Drive. The law firm previously occupied closer to four floors at the building as of 2007, when it counted about 85 attorneys in OC.
Latham & Watkins had about 70 lawyers and 140 total employees at the Costa Mesa office as of earlier this year, according to Business Journal data. The firm has had an OC office for more than 40 years.
Scott Gamber, vice chairman of CBRE Group Inc.’s midtown Manhattan, N.Y., office, represented Latham & Watkins in the lease. Richard Frost of The Offices of South Coast Plaza handled the lese for the landlord.
Houston Buy
An affiliate of Newport Beach-based KBS Realty Advisors has bought a 21-story office tower in Houston.
The company’s KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT Inc. signed a deal on Nov. 20 to buy the 1800 West Loop building, a nearly 400,000-square-foot office in Houston’s upscale galleria district.
The purchase price is said to be $68.5 million, or about $171 per square foot.
The sale closed last week, according to KBS.
KBS said it plans to pay for the building using proceeds from the non-traded real estate investment trust’s ongoing public offering. To date, the offering has raised more than $400 million, though it could later place mortgage debt on the property.
The building was sold by an ownership group including Houston-based Transwestern Investment Co.
Transwestern’s sales offering for the building said the office counts an occupancy rate of about 94%, but KBS said in regulatory filings late last month that the building will be closer to 76% leased by year-end, following a few tenant departures.
The office was built in 1982 and renovated in 2005. It brings in $6.7 million in rents annually.
Laguna Hills Offering
The Village Plaza, a small shopping center across the street from the Laguna Hills Mall, is up for sale.
The 13,300-square-foot center, just off the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway at the intersection of El Toro Road and Avenida De La Carlota, has an asking price of $9.35 million, or about $700 per square foot. The property comes with an assumable $6.8 million loan that runs another 28 years.
CoStar Group Inc. data show the property is currently owned by a San Juan Capistrano entity operating under the West Coast Highway LLC name.
The center counts a Taco Stop restaurant and paintball store, among other tenants, who combine to pay more than $500,000 in rents annually. The building is fully leased, according to marketing materials from Irvine-based Pacific Commercial Investments Inc., whose brokers have the listing for the property.
The Village Plaza is the latest retail property in Laguna Hills likely to see changes in the near future. The Laguna Hills Mall is expected to see a $55 million renovation program rolled out by its owner, Indianapolis-based Simon Properties Co., next year, and the nearby Oakbrook Village shopping center is slated to begin a nearly $35 million redevelopment and renovation project next year that will include apartment development.
HQ Move
Real estate investment management firm Bu-chanan Street Partners has moved its headquarters to a new location in Newport Center.
The company recently moved its offices to 888 San Clemente Drive, a four-story building that also counts the headquarters of Roth Capital Partners and a local office of UBS, among other tenants.
Buchanan Street was previously at the 620 Newport Center Drive office tower. Both buildings are owned by Newport Beach-based Irvine Company.
