After completing the Lakeview Business Park in Anaheim this summer, Guthrie Development Co. has sold the six-building, 165,000-square-foot industrial complex for nearly $14 million to individual owner-users.
“There’s such tight supply in the area, combined with historically low interest rates, that it’s cheaper for small business owners to own rather than lease,” said Rob Guthrie, president of Laguna Hills-based Guthrie Development.
The Lakeview Business Center buildings range from 17,000 square feet to 39,000 square feet.
And Guthrie will keep a hand in the park: Guthrie Asset Management Co. will manage the complex.
Despite the slowing market, the Lakeview Business Park was a relatively easy sell, according to Mike Hefner of Voit Commercial Brokerage’s Anaheim office, who represented Guthrie in the sale of all six buildings.
The deals were:
–Building 1 was sold to Bisco Industries Inc. for $3.7 million
–Building 2 was sold to Harry Burke for $2.3 million
–Building 3 was sold to PJ Printers for $2 million
–Buildings 4 and 5 were sold to Moseys’ Production Machinists for $5 million
–Building 6 was sold to Yamada Electronics for $1.5 million
Guthrie said he believes the quick turnaround on the project is evidence of the continued demand for industrial property in Orange County, especially small to medium-size buildings.
“Lakeview Business Park is just straightforward, plain, industrial product,” Guthrie said. “It’s not R & D; and it’s not flex-tech. It’s strictly warehouse and manufacturing, and is a perfect example of the type of facilities we build.”
In the case of Moseys’ Production Machinists, one of the buildings already was leased at the time of sale.
Moseys’ will expand to the second building once the present tenant’s lease is up.
For another owner, the events of Sept. 11 have caused his company to grow. Harry Burke owns a company that supplies components for out-of-production military equipment to subcontractors.
“He supplies to Raytheon, for instance, who would then supply the product to the Defense Department” Guthrie said.
Burke’s company manufactures products like the spring that launches the grenade in a grenade launcher, according to Guthrie.
Irvine-based Miller Contracting Co. built Lakeview Business Park, and is constructing Guthrie’s Arroyo Vista Business Center in Rancho Santa Margarita. Construction of the six-building South County industrial park is set to be done by January. Guthrie has other projects under way in Fullerton, Tustin and Foothill Ranch.
As is often the case, Guthrie saw the plan for the 7.7 acres at the corner of Lakeview and Orangethorpe avenues evolve from its original conception.
“Initially, we were going to build 22 little buildings, but changed our mind and built six medium ones instead,” Guthrie said.
The land itself has a storied history.
Before being acquired by Guthrie, the property was home to a Yorba Orange Growers Association packing plant. It was the second-last orange packing plant in OC, and the land’s title can be traced back to the Spanish land grant to the Yorba family.
The new development honors the historical roots of the site with a sculpture designed by the project architect, Bill Skinner.
Titled “The End of the Line,” the abstract sculpture is 19 feet long and 5 feet high and depicts oranges in crates traveling down a conveyor belt. At the end of the belt, the last box tips over and the oranges begin spilling out. n
