Six Leases Total 350,000 Square Feet; ‘It’s a Very Active Market’
Newport Beach-based Layton-Belling & Associates, one of Orange County’s most active real estate investors last year, is off to a quick start in 2000.
The company signed six leases recently, totaling 350,000 square feet and valued at more than $33 million.
“It’s a very active market right now,” said Steve Layton, a principal of LBA. “The leasing market slowed a little bit at the end of last year. But so far this year, it has picked up again. The pace seems to be even heavier now than during 1999.”
The leasing activity comes after LBA was involved in $300 million worth of deals to acquire 3 million square feet of office and industrial properties in 1999.
“We are managing members in several different partnerships,” said Layton. “Together, all of those partnerships have been very active for the past several years.”
The single largest partner of LBA’s is AEW Capital Management of Boston, a pension fund adviser.
During the past five years, LBA and its partners have purchased, renovated, developed and leased more than 10 million square feet of office and industrial space. The company’s current portfolio totals more than 3.5 million square feet of space in Southern California.
“They’ve been very smart investors,” said Jack McNutt, senior vice president for Grubb & Ellis in Newport Beach, who has brokered several deals with the real estate investment and management firm. “LBA has been able to take properties and reposition them in the market to increase value and attract tenants.”
The most recent LBA lease deals included:
n Silicon Valley-based Exodus Communications, a business-focused Internet and network service provider, signed a 15-year lease valued at $16.5 million for 102,000 square feet at 17871 Von Karman Ave., in LBA’s new Airport Corporate Center in Irvine. The firm will use the space for its communications hardware. George Riley and Justin Riley of CPS represented Exodus in the transaction and Cushman and Wakefield represented LBA.
n Liberty Mutual, an insurance firm, signed a five-year, $4 million lease for 33,000 square feet of office space at LBA’s newly renovated 225 W. Broadway Building in Glendale. The company had been taking space at two other office complexes in the area. Seth Dudley and David Kimble of the Los Angeles office of Julian J. Studley represented Liberty Mutual in the transaction, while Bob Fitzgerald, Brad Feld and Mark Wolf of the Los Angeles office of Cushman and Wakefield represented LBA.
n Kemper Insurance Companies signed a $4 million, seven-year, lease for 28,800 square feet of office space at 2390 Orangewood Ave. in Anaheim. The space is in LBA’s 300,000-square-foot Anaheim Corporate Plaza. Kemper will move into its new space in April after consolidating three offices in the city of Industry, Orange and Santa Ana. Fitzgerald and David Dowd of Cushman & Wakefield represented the tenant in the transaction while Alex Hayden, Mark Friend and Jeff Morgan from CB Richard Ellis represented LBA.
n Wind River Systems signed a $1.9 million, five-year lease to relocate to 17,000 square feet of office space at 17771 Cowan St. in Irvine. John Wadsworth of the Seeley Co. represented the tenant in the transaction while McNutt and Bryon Ward of Grubb & Ellis represented LBA.
n Ameritech Data Networking Systems signed a lease for 3,600 square feet to move into new office space at LBA’s Metroplex property at 2401 E. Katella Ave in Anaheim. The broker representing the tenant in the transaction was Craig Martz of Equis, and representing LBA was Jon Swallow of Grubb & Ellis and Hayden of CB Richard Ellis.
n Mitsubishi Electronics leased 162,000 square feet of warehouse space at LBA’s Cypress Tech Center at 5757 Plaza Drive in Cypress. The six-year lease is valued at $6.6 million. Drexel Chapman of the Seeley Company represented Mitsubishi in the transaction. The company had been in the same complex before but decided to lease more space and reconfigure an existing building at the center.
Prior to becoming an investment firm, LBA was a management and consulting company for many of the nation’s largest financial institutions.
Founded in 1991 by Layton and Phil Belling, LBA has since added senior partners Dave Thomas, Steve Briggs and Bill Kearns.
Layton-Belling has offices in Los Angeles, San Diego, Irvine and Anaheim. n
