Los Angeles-based Maguire Properties Inc. said on Wednesday it signed a big bank to a lease for its Park Place office campus in Irvine, even as it had to drop the value of a nearby tower it is looking to sell at the same complex.
The landlord said it signed U.S. Bancorp to an 82,500-square-foot lease at 3121 Michelson, a six-story, 150,000-square-foot office building near John Wayne Airport.
The 10-year lease begins in August, according to Maguire Properties. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. U.S. Bank will open a branch at the site and have its name on the building.
U.S. Bank, the country’s sixth-largest commercial bank, will be consolidating offices from several area locations.
A majority of employees will be coming from the former headquarters of Newport Beach-based Downey Financial Corp., according to Ed Dwyer, U.S. Bank senior vice president.
Last November, Downey’s deposits were transferred to U.S. Bank after regulators seized Downey’s savings and loan. Dwyer is the onsite chief executive for Downey through the transition.
Downey had owned its 320,000-square-foot headquarters but only used a portion of that space for its own operations.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. now owns the Newport Beach buildings and is expected to sell the property. U.S. Bank currently leases office space at the site, in a deal that lasts through August.
U.S. Bank’s local commercial banking office, based in a different building in Newport Beach, isn’t part of the move, according to Dwyer.
Maguire’s lease deal came a day after the debt-heavy real estate investment trust announced its first-quarter earnings, in which it showed a loss of $53.9 million.
The results included a $23.5 million write-down in value for its new 3161 Michelson tower at Park Place, which the company is trying to sell.
The landlord previously wrote-down the 19-story, 531,000-square-foot tower by $50 million in anticipation of a sale. The company is looking to sell several Orange County assets in order to reduce debt.
Real estate sources last month estimated a sale of the trophy property would run close to $165 million, or about $310 per square foot. The building previously was valued at about $244 million, or $460 per square foot.
