Irvine-based Bixby Land Co. has bought an empty, 75,000-square-foot office building in Corona once eyed as headquarters for Monster Beverage Corp., and has leased a bulk of the property to a construction company.
Bixby paid an undisclosed amount for 2455 Anselmo Drive, a recently built, three-story office on the Riverside (91) Freeway.
Monster Beverage, the juice and energy drink company previously known as Hansen Natural Corp. and one of Corona’s largest employers, paid about $9.7 million for the property early last year before the company opted to move its headquarters into a larger, six-story building nearby.
The building is believed to have traded hands last month at a price close to last year’s sale.
Bixby’s latest investment isn’t staying vacant for long.
The real estate investor said it signed on a venture of Atkinson Contractors and Walsh Construction Co. to take up two floors. The 50,000-square-foot lease is valued at $3.2 million.
The Atkinson/Walsh venture is working on a $664 million road improvement project in the area.
Randy Parker and Steve Card of Travers Realty’s Newport Beach office represented Atkinson/Walsh in the lease. Rick Ellison and Jeff Chiate of Cushman & Wakefield Inc.’s Irvine office brokered the office sale.
Perris Center
Irvine-based Sares-Regis Group said it’s moving ahead on a $40 million industrial project in the Riverside County city of Perris.
The company said it plans to start work soon on SRG Perris Logistics Center, a 580,000-square-foot distribution building near the former March Air Force Base.
Construction on the 28.8-acre, LEED-certified center should start this summer and wrap up by year-end, according to Larry Lukanish, senior vice president in Sares-Regis’ commercial investment division.
The development, at 3900 Indian Ave., is near the intersection of the Escondido (215) Freeway and Ramona Expressway. The distribution corridor has a number of large tenants nearby, including Hanesbrands Inc., which occupies a 1.3-million-square-foot building next to the development.
Thomas Taylor, Steve Bellitti and Summer Colter of Colliers International are marketing the logistics center. The Colliers team also represented Sares-Regis and the property’s seller, Chicago-based Ridge Property Trust, in the land acquisition.
Carlsbad Focus
Focus Real Estate LP, a Costa Mesa-based investor whose executive team has ties to the Koll Development Co., has picked up an industrial building in Carlsbad.
The company said it bought a 47,762-square-foot building in a business park about two miles east of the San Diego (5) Freeway. Terms of the sale weren’t disclosed.
Records show the building, at 2293 Cosmos Court, being sold by an affiliate of Oceanside Glass Tile Co., which plans to lease back the property for two years.
Focus Real Estate officials said their company has the option to replace the tenant during the lease-back period and that it intends to market the building for sale or lease after completing a renovation.
The acquisition was funded with equity from high-net-worth investors and with debt from SunWest Bank arranged by Bridgeport Investments of Tustin.
Focus Real Estate was formed in 2000 and is headed by longtime real estate executive Richard Ortwein, former president of Koll Development Co., and his partners, Michael Ortwein and Jack Kappe.
The company said it is seeking other Southern California office and industrial investment opportunities valued between $5 million and $20 million.
KBS in Denver
One of KBS Realty Advisors’ nontraded real estate investment trusts is paying $86 million for an office complex in Westminster, Colo.
The Newport Beach-based company’s KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT Inc. bought the Westmoor Center, a six-building, 612,890-square-foot office complex, for about $140 per square foot.
Westmoor Center is halfway between Denver and Boulder and was 81% occupied at the time of the purchase. It currently brings in about $6.4 million a year in rents.
KBS and its affiliated companies now own six properties in the Denver area totaling about 1.7 million square feet. Other buildings it owns in the region include Granite Tower, a 31-story office tower in downtown Denver that it paid $149 million for in 2010.
