COMMERCIAL
An affiliate of Irvine-based real estate investor Cornerstone Real Estate Funds is looking to ramp up its acquisitions of healthcare-related buildings.
The company’s Cornerstone Healthcare Plus REIT Inc. plans to raise as much as $440 million from investors in the next few years, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Healthcare Plus trust was formed in 2006 and has raised more than $60 million already.
Its portfolio currently consists of six assisted-living, nursing and acute-care hospital properties in Georgia, Texas, Florida, Indiana and South Carolina.
All of those deals were struck since the beginning of 2009. Its latest buy was in April, when it paid $27 million for majority stakes in two assisted-living facilities, totaling about 180 beds, in South Carolina.
Proceeds from Healthcare Plus’ offering primarily will be used to invest in existing leased healthcare properties, according to the company’s registration statement. Industrial, retail and other commercial real estate buildings, as well as loan and mortgage investments, also might be considered.
The non-traded investment trust is the latest Orange County-based company that’s looked to invest in healthcare-related properties.
Santa Ana’s Grubb & Ellis Co. has a similar offering in the works, which to date has raised about $70 million.
And Cornerstone has another investment trust—Cornerstone Core Properties REIT Inc.—that has raised about $180 million during the past five years, which has been used to buy industrial properties.
Chief Executive Terry Roussel leads Cornerstone Real Estate, which has been around since 1989. The company was founded as Koll-Cornerstone.
Longtime OC developer Donald Koll was an early Cornerstone backer but isn’t involved with the fund today.
Pavilion Deal
In early June, I wrote a story about developer Mike Harrah’s plan to sell off one of his better-known properties, the OC Pavilion concert theater, to help finance construction of his stalled One Broadway Plaza office tower in downtown Santa Ana.
At the time of the story, Harrah said he was negotiating with the Orange County High School of the Arts to sell the 500-seat theater. He said the sales price was likely to be in the $13 million range.
The deal’s now a go, according to Dr. Ralph Opacic, OCHSA’s president and executive director.
“It is our plan to close escrow and take ownership of the theater this fall,” Opacic said in a statement.
Officials said the deal for the 50,000-square-foot theater will boost the school’s space to about 210,000 square feet.
The theater is one block south of the charter school’s existing campus at 801 N. Main St. in Santa Ana.
In addition to raising cash for his skyscraper project, last week Harrah also got Santa Ana City Council’s approval to remove a preleasing requirement and other measures that had been keeping construction of the office tower from moving forward.
Inco Expands
Long Beach-based commercial brokerage Inco Co. is expanding its operations into Orange County with the help of a long-time local broker.
Inco recently opened an office in Irvine near John Wayne Airport, headed up by Managing Director Gary Marquis. The company’s operating locally under the name Inco Commercial.
Marquis counts nearly 30 years of local experience; he previously was a founding managing partner for the Anaheim brokerage office of Voit Commercial, now known as Voit Real Estate Services.
More recently he was senior vice president for the Newport Beach office of Collins Commercial, which recently was acquired by Daum Commercial Real Estate Services.
Inco’s looking to hire more local brokers, who will have the opportunity to become equity owners in the company and share in profits, according to Marquis.
While the typical company may pay their brokers 50% to 60% of the commissions they earn, commission rates in the 75% to 90% range is conceivable at Inco, thanks to a minimal amount of non-sales overhead at the company, he said.
Storage Buy
Ladera Ranch’s Strategic Storage Trust Inc. has added another self-storage facility to its portfolio.
The company paid $5.5 million for a 1,040-unit self storage facility in Davie, Florida. The 13-building property totals 122,700 square feet of self storage and RV parking space.
Strategic Storage’s portfolio now totals 35 properties in 14 states. It’s raised more than $140 million from investors.
Premier Expansion
Irvine’s Premier Office Centers LLC, an operator of executive suites and office centers, has added a location in Burbank.
The company, started by the founders of Irvine-based apartment investor Bascom Group, bought an existing executive suite operation on West Olive Avenue that counts 92 offices and 23,481 square feet. Terms of the sale weren’t disclosed.
It’s the 23rd location the company has in Los Angeles County; its next largest market is OC, with 17 offices. It has 55 locations in all.
