The Orange County Sanitation District has completed the purchase of an office building in Fountain Valley that it intends to use for expanding operations.
The public agency, which provides sewer collection, treatment and disposal services for about 2.6 million people in central and northwest Orange County, completed the buy of 18350 Mount Langley St. last month.
The two-story building sits just south of the San Diego (405) Freeway, a block from one of the sanitation district’s two big sewer treatment facilities, which sits on 114 acres.
It also has a location in Huntington Beach.
The 44,213-square-foot property sold for just under $9.8 million, or $220 per square foot, according to the Irvine office of NAI Capital, whose Steven Hogberg represented the seller, an entity listed as K&A Investments LP.
The buyers were represented by Kevin Turner and John Gallivan in the Irvine office of Cushman & Wakefield, according to public records.
The district said in records related to the deal that it earmarked about $11 million to buy and renovate the office. The purchase had been in the works for several months.
The building, part of the Fountain Valley Business Center, was 100% leased at the time of the sale to a variety of tenants. The new owner plans to eventually occupy it as space becomes available, according to a statement by NAI Capital.
Irvine-based Muller Co. will provide property management services under the new ownership, according to the district.
The “property was not for sale and the buyer approached us with an unsolicited offer,” Hogberg said. “This was a long term asset for the client, and they will take their profits and redeploy them into another investment.”
It’s unclear what, if any, effect the buy will have on the district’s other proposed facility expansion plans in Fountain Valley.
Late last year it announced plans to build about 155,000 square feet for a new headquarters complex on Ellis Avenue next to its main facilities in the city, “to house administrative, engineering and laboratory staff.”
Construction on the project, which would be next to the recently bought building, is tentatively scheduled for 2020, according to the district’s website.
Brokerage Scorecard
OC’s residential brokerage industry has experienced its third big ownership change since February.
Late last month, Irvine-based First Team Real Estate, which calls itself Southern California’s largest independent real estate brokerage, said it was adding Aliso Viejo-based Star Estates to its company.
The deal on undisclosed terms adds Star Estates’ 130 agents. First Team already had more than two dozen offices across Southern California and over 2,000 real estate agents.
Star Estates had been owned and operated for 15 years by Michelle Williams Harrington, who’ll take the role of vice president at First Team.
Star Estates’ Janet Montandon and Andrea Carpenter will be office managers in the combined companies’ San Clemente and Mission Viejo offices, respectively.
The deal comes a month after Tustin-based Seven Gables Real Estate announced a merger with Star Real Estate of Fountain Valley. Star Real Estate will rebrand as Seven Gables.
The transaction, also made on undisclosed terms, gives Seven Gables a bigger presence along the Corona del Mar and Huntington Beach coastlines, the brokerage said.
The combined team of nearly 500 associates work on about $1.6 billion in deals annually. It now has offices in Huntington Beach, Anaheim Hills, Corona del Mar, Tustin, Orange and Fountain Valley.
Also in February, San Diego-based Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty completed its buy, on undisclosed terms, of Newport Beach-based HOM Sotheby’s International Realty, which has about 300 agents and nine office locations in OC and the Coachella Valley.
The acquired firm will operate as Pacific Sotheby’s International Realty. It now has a combined 900 agents in 32 offices.
HOM Sotheby’s ended 2017 with sales volume of more than $2.1 billion. Management will continue to lead Pacific Sotheby’s new OC office under the new ownership structure, the companies said in a statement.
