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Irvine’s Bixby Land Co. is looking to switch up its investment strategy to take advantage of the down market, but the real estate investor and developer still is completing a few conventional deals.
Bixby, which has more than doubled the size of its portfolio since 2006 and now counts about 6 million square feet of office and industrial space, recently snatched up another office in San Diego.
The company bought a 50,000-square-foot research and development building in the Sorrento Valley area, near the headquarters of Qualcomm Inc. The deal pushes Bixby’s San Diego holdings to more than 600,000 square feet.
Bixby paid $9.2 million, or about $184 per square foot, for the office, which is occupied by technology manufacturer Quantum Design Inc. under a long-term lease.
It was an all-Orange County deal. The building was sold by Irvine’s LBA Realty, which counts a San Diego portfolio totaling more than 20 buildings. LBA had acquired that and other nearby offices in 2005 in a $28 million purchase.
Expect to see fewer conventional acquisitions going forward for Bixby. With the commercial real estate sector still far from a recovery, the company will start pursuing what officials are calling a “value-add investment strategy” to get better-quality buildings at discounted prices.
“We believe we can identify investment opportunities from distressed sellers needing to dispose of their properties,” Chief Executive Bill Halford said.
Bixby’s also been a seller of late. Garden Grove-based Goodwin Co. recently acquired a 44,228-square-foot industrial building from Bixby. The building is next to the ammonia manufacturer’s headquarters, at 12200 Industry Street.
Goodwin paid $3.6 million, or about $82 per square foot, for the building. The company plans to expand operations into the building once the current occupant, a garage door maker, relocates.
Bob Goodmanson of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. represented Bixby in the Goodwin sale, while Frank Adler of Lee & Associates represented the buyer. In the San Diego deal, Harry Stone of Voit Real Estate Services represented Bixby and LBA Realty.
Olen Reworks Loans
Newport Beach’s Olen Properties Corp. has finished refinancing loans on a sizable portion of its industrial portfolio around John Wayne Airport, according to Igor Olenicoff, the company’s founder and president.
The real estate investor and developer recently closed a $70 million loan with Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp, tied to 13 industrial buildings in Irvine Business Complex.
Debt on the property had recently come due, although Olen already had paid off commercial mortgage-backed securities debt tied to the properties about six months ago, according to Olenicoff.
The loan with U.S. Bank is for three years. The refinancing is “short term, because I believe there will be (attractive) long-term debt available again in about three years,” Olenicoff said.
The debt is at a variable rate based on the London Interbank Offered Rate.
Olen owns about 30 office and industrial properties around the airport in Irvine, Tustin and Costa Mesa, according to the company’s Web site. Its local commercial portfolio totals more than 5 million square feet. The company’s believed to be OC’s second-largest office landlord, behind Irvine Company.
Burnham Buys
A family trust tied to Newport Beach’s Burnham USA Equities Inc. has acquired two buildings in its hometown for a combined $12 million.
Scott Burnham, chairman and chief executive of the real estate investor, said his Burnham Family Trust last month acquired the Northern Trust building at 16 Corporate Plaza, in Newport Center. The 13,000-square-foot office serves as the regional banking offices for Northern Trust Corp. The seller was Marguerite Parkway Properties LLC, which also is based in Newport Beach.
Burnham also recently bought a 10,000-square-foot waterfront commercial property in Newport Beach, at 341 Bayside Drive. The family trust acquired the fee land from Mile High Properties Inc. of Reno, and the building improvements were purchased in a separate deal from 341 Bayside Associates LLC of Newport Beach.
Terms of the individual deals weren’t disclosed. On a combined basis, the two buildings sold for about $521 per square foot.
Burnham USA and its affiliates now manage about 10 Newport Beach commercial properties, according to the company’s Web site. The two acquisitions are the largest local deals the company’s been involved in since its acquisition of Costa Mesa’s South Coast Home Furnishings Center last year for $37 million.
