The local office of Dallas-based Lincoln Properties Corp. has bought the largest office property in Los Alamitos.
The real estate investor and developer recently completed the purchase of 3131 Katella Ave., which includes two buildings for a total of 150,000 square feet.
The two-story offices are on about 10 acres and just east of the San Gabriel Valley (605) Freeway. They are next to Los Alamitos City Hall, about a mile west of the Los Alamitos Race Course.
It is the only office property in the city that tops 100,000 square feet, according to CoStar Group Inc. records.
There are about 700,000 square feet of office space in Los Alamitos, and the city’s office market has a vacancy rate just under 15%, according to brokerage data from Voit Real Estate Services.
“We purchased the site for its extraordinary location,” said Kevin Hayes, executive vice president for the Santa Ana office of Lincoln Properties.
SuperMedia
SuperMedia Inc., a provider of print, mobile, and Internet advertising, had owned and occupied the buildings, but the offices are now expected to be renovated and leased out, according to the buyer.
The building was sold by an affiliate of SuperMedia, which merged with Dallas-based Dex One Corp. in 2013 following a short stint in bankruptcy.
SuperMedia, one of the country’s larger yellow-pages directory publishers in the U.S., had occupied both buildings but is expected to vacate them this year.
The company was the fourth-largest employer in Los Alamitos as of 2010, with 350 employees; but it has been cutting positions since then amid declining use of phone books.
Financial terms of the office purchase were not disclosed.
Dex put a $12 million value on the offices last year, according to regulatory filings.
SuperMedia said in 2013 that it was nearing a deal to sell the Los Alamitos property for $21 million to an unnamed buyer but did not complete the deal.
It is believed that the higher-priced deal in 2013 would have resulted in the site being torn down to make way for apartments or other uses.
Changing Entitlements
Los Alamitos has been exploring changing the land use entitlements for the SuperMedia site, along with the 3-acre City Hall office site next door, to allow retail, residential and other development along one of the more prominent corridors in the city.
“The land fronting Katella Avenue just east of the 605 Freeway is seen as the largest viable site in the city for future retail,” according to recent city documents.
Lincoln Property officials said they are planning to keep the property as offices, but plan major upgrades before leasing them to new tenants.
‘Reposition’
The new owner is planning “to significantly reposition” the offices, according to Hayes.
Plans call for new interiors, an exterior remodel that creates more indoor/outdoor spaces, new mechanical systems, new landscaping, and added parking, he said.
The properties, once remodeled, “are ideal for full-building, full-floor, or half-floor users,” Hayes said.
