St. Clair Co. Close to Deal for ‘Large’ Aspen Parcel
COMMERCIAL
Irvine-based MBK Real Estate is looking to build roughly 1.5 million square feet of retail space next year, but don’t look for too much activity in the competitive Orange County market.
Mike Voss, president of MBK Real Estate, said his company is looking to identify opportunities in Washington, Oregon and elsewhere in California.
“That includes both brand new development and the redevelopment and repositioning of existing centers,” he said.
Currently, MBK Real Estate,a subsidiary of Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsui & Co.,has identified a number of targets in Southern California, but has yet to close escrow on any of them. Competition for such opportunities in Southern California has made it difficult to move forward on any project, although Voss remains optimistic.
With the recent troubles in the theater industry,a result of overbuilding and taking on too much debt,Voss expects some retail centers to falter, creating opportunities for his firm.
“I would think what’s going on in the exhibition industry right now will create a number of opportunities for us,” he said.
Typically, MBK Real Estate looks for opportunities in urban centers whose anchors and tenants do not fit the surrounding demographics.
“We like to see retail centers that are well located from a demographic standpoint but with anchors and tenants that are either weak or inappropriate for that particular market,” he said. “What we do is we come in and renovate and reposition the center by first of all physically reconfiguring (the center) and then bringing in new tenants.”
Practice Builders Going to Nexus Towers
Practice Builders Inc., a nationwide advertising/publishing firm specializing in professional practices, has signed a five-year, $2.4 million lease for 16,154 square feet of office space at the Nexus Co.’s Twin Towers at MacArthur Place development.
Practice Builders will relocate from the former Parker Aerospace site in Irvine to its new space at 1 MacArthur Place in June.
The company becomes the latest tenant at Orange County’s newest high-rise development, two nine-story buildings under construction near the new First American Corp. headquarters complex in Santa Ana. The high-rise development, consisting of 400,000 square feet, is roughly 80% leased with tenants such as MSC Software, American International Group (AIG), Deloitte & Touche and World Premier Investments.
The father-son team of George and Steve Economos of NAI Capital Commercial represented Practice Builders and the Nexus Co.’s Imperial Promenade Associates LLC entity.
RESIDENTIAL
Well-known among local real estate circles for its aggressive land buying and development strategies in Southern California, the St. Clair Co. is looking to add to its portfolio of properties in the resort community of Aspen, Colo.
“We’re looking at another large acquisition in Aspen,” said Steve St. Clair, principal of the Newport Beach-based firm.
Th parameters of a deal to acquire the unspecified parcel are in place, with escrow closing anticipated in about 90 days, St. Clair said.
Already, the St. Clair Co. owns the 903-acre Braun Ranch in Woody Creek near Aspen, which it acquired for $23 million in what was the single largest non-commercial real estate sale in that city’s history. (On that purchase, the St. Clair company teamed up with a local partner to form Woody Creek Ventures LLC. The plan is to develop the site with 10,000-square-foot homes.)
The push into the Aspen market is uncharacteristic for St. Clair, who prefers to focus his activities in Southern California.
“I don’t want to manage stuff anywhere else, quite honestly,” he said. “I don’t want to be on a plane flying around. I want to stay within two hours of home.”
Yet the draw to Aspen remains strong, if only because it’s a unique market, he said.
“The thing I like about it is it’s got its own little economy and it’s really an international economy,” he said. “There’s very little land to be developed there. Granted it’s tough to get land entitled there, but there are a lot of willing sellers.”
That’s quite a bit different from the scene closer to home, he said. Although the St. Clair Co. remains active and constantly pursues deals, competition from other land developers and homebuilders, coupled with the diminishing supply of land available for purchase, makes things much more difficult, he said.
“We’re looking to buy,” he said. “We just haven’t seen anything (that makes sense).”
For now, the company remains busy developing commercial properties on some of its parcels and entitling the residential portions for resale to homebuilders. The company controls enough land for roughly 2,500 lots in Southern California.
Park Place Partners in Hawaii
The land situation in Southern California isn’t quite that dire, but just the same, land brokers Park Place Partners has gone all the way to Hawaii for its next contract.
The Orange-based company was recently tapped to market the 866-acre masterplanned community of Waikoloa Heights in Hawaii. The proposed community,approximately six miles inland from the Kohala Coast resorts of Mauna Lai, Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, the Hilton Waikoloa Village and the Four Seasons,will feature a Gary Player Signature Golf Course.
Last year, Park Place Partners brokered a deal in which Schuler Homes purchased the entire first phase of the Island at Mauna Lani development in Maui.
Apartment Sale
Garden Grove Housing Corp. of Newport Beach has paid $7.3 million for the 80-unit Olive Tree Apartment complex at 13902-13940 Taft Street in Garden Grove. Ken Morgan and Jay Skenderian, of Newport Beach-based apartment brokers Morgan Skenderian Investment Real Estate Group, represented Garden Grove Housing and the seller, Irvine-based Olive Tree Apartments LLC.
