Great Far East Inc.—a commercial real estate buyer with funding from Chinese investors—has bought the Irvine Spectrum office that holds the headquarters of restaurant chain Yard House USA Inc.
Irvine-based Great Far East paid about $56.5 million for the nine-story building, according to brokers with CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. who worked on the sale.
The deal works out to about $270 per square foot for the 210,000-square-foot office at 7700 Irvine Center Drive, near the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway.
It follows a recent sale of 2600 Michelson in Irvine, which fetched about $70 million, the highest price for an individual office building here so far this year. The 308,000-square-foot tower at Michelson Drive near Jamboree Road is about 50% full. The price worked out to about $230 per square foot.
The 7700 Spectrum building is about 80% occupied.
It was sold by American Spectrum Realty Inc., which used the office as its headquarters until 2004, when it moved to Houston.
The deal marks one of the largest sales in Orange County’s office market this year. It’s the highest-priced office sale in the Spectrum area in about two years.
It also is the largest office sale in the county involving foreign buyers so far this year.
Liu Living Trust, which has been described as a wealthy Asian real estate investor, paid $37 million for Santa Ana’s Lakeside Tower in May.
Asian investors and other foreign buyers of commercial real estate largely have been busy in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C., in the past year. They’ve been relatively scarce here, according to brokers.
Local Ties
Great Far East’s familiarity with the local market played a big part in the sale of the 7700 Spectrum building, according to Rich Pincott, vice president for the Newport Beach office of CB Richard Ellis, who has represented Great Far East in its recent local deals.
Great Far East has offices in the Shijiazhuang region of China and Irvine. Some of its executives live here.
The 7700 Spectrum building is Great Far East’s fourth, and largest, buy in Irvine. Last September, it bought a 66,000-square-foot office near John Wayne Airport. The company paid $11.8 million in the lender-driven sale for the four-story building, located at 18831 Von Karman Ave.
All told, Great Far East’s Irvine office portfolio now totals about 343,000 square feet. Its other area buildings largely are full, according to the company.
Great Far East’s other assets primarily are in China, according to the company’s website. Earlier this year it bought 50 acres of undeveloped land in the Shijiazhuang region where it plans to build up to 15,000 homes.
The 7700 Spectrum deal had been in the works for several months and involved the assumption of a loan.
Regulatory filings showed the prior owner having a $45 million loan tied to the property. The loan was due in 2017 and carried an interest rate of about 6%.
American Spectrum said the sale of the office generated net proceeds of about $6.1 million. It bought the building in 2001.
CB Richard Ellis’ Kevin Shannon, Mike Moore, Bob Smith, Paul Jones, and Karen Scholte represented the seller.
The 7700 building also has seen its share of tenant turnover in recent years.
The office once was known as Orange County’s Chrysler building because it houses local operations of Chrysler Group LLC.
The automaker once took up more than half of the building but now occupies just one floor.
Restaurant Row
Yard House last year consolidated its local offices to about 25,000 square feet in the building, which now carries the name of the restaurant chain.
Other tenants include Irvine’s Galardi Group Inc., the holding company that operates hot dog chain Wienerschnitzel, among others.
