Irvine-based LBA Realty, a real estate investment and management company, always has been big on acquisitions.
Phil Belling and Steve Layton founded privately held LBA in 1991. Since then, the company has bought more than $1.6 billion in real estate since 1995, on behalf of five institutional investors.
Those deals totaled more than 150 industrial and office properties, comprising roughly 20 million square feet.
LBA’s current portfolio includes more than 12 million square feet. Within that are about 15 buildings in Orange County, including the 273,000-square-foot office tower at 17901 Von Karman Ave.
Now LBA is getting bigger, by more than 7 million square feet.
The company last week said it plans to buy Bedford Property Investors Inc., a real estate investment trust based near Oakland.
LBA is buying Bedford for about $435 million in cash. LBA is paying about 11% more than what Bedford’s shares closed at before the deal.
The buy could wrap up late in the second quarter.
Belling, LBA’s managing director, said he believes Bedford’s holdings mix well with his company’s. Bedford owns industrial and office buildings in California, Arizona, Washington, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon.
As of Dec. 31, Bedford owned 91 buildings totaling 7.4 million square feet. The portfolio includes 61 industrial properties. The remaining 30 are suburban offices.
A couple of local buildings are part of the deal.
Bedford owns the 205,000-square-foot Towne Centre Plaza in Foothill Ranch. On the industrial side, LBA is getting Tustin’s 3002 Dow Business Center, which is 192,000 square feet. The Tustin property served as Bedford’s regional headquarters.
More development could result from the deal. Bedford counts 11 parcels of about 46 acres. Locally, LBA has had plans on tap for a few years to build an office tower at 2320 Main St. in Irvine.
Small Industrial Rages On
Small industrial buildings for sale continue to be the biggest source of growth for industrial developers.
In Brea, Guthrie Development Co. recently sold 12 new industrial buildings totaling 87,000 square feet. The properties are part of Mariner Commerce Park.
The buildings range in size from 5,330 to 10,960 square feet. They sold for about $170 per square foot. That puts the deal at close to $15 million. The final 13th building at Mariner is in escrow.
Costa Mesa-based Guthrie Development, formed in 2000 by president Rob Guthrie, develops industrial business parks focused on small and midsize businesses. The company does most of its work here but also has built in San Diego and Ventura counties.
Guthrie has close to $135 million of similar development deals in the works.
Ben Seybold, Zachary Niles and Sean Ward of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. represented Guthrie Development in the Brea sale.
Another Industrial Project
Brookhollow Group, also based in Costa Mesa, just sold 22 industrial condominiums at its Fullerton Industrial Park. The park is at State College Boulevard and Valencia Drive.
Brookhollow bought the industrial park from Cigna Corp. about a year ago. At the time, the park had 11 buildings totaling 228,401 square feet. Brookhollow converted them into 22 smaller units, ranging from 4,650 to 24,000 square feet.
Buyers bought about half the buildings for their own businesses, including a tile company and some small assembly shops. Investors bought the other half of the park.
Rick Ellison, Jeff Chiate, and Peter Sowa of Cushman & Wakefield Inc. represented Brookhollow in the sales, estimated in the $30 million range.
Brookhollow buys and develops office and industrial properties. It has done close to $500 million of projects in Southern California and Nevada.
Woodbury, the masterplanned development by The Irvine Company, got some plaudits.
The National Association of Home Builders recently named the project in east Irvine the “Best Master-Planned Community of the Year.”
Woodbury beat out 1,400 other communities for the award, considered one of the country’s highest honors for planning.
Woodbury has 11 neighborhoods with 16 gardens, parks and squares. Roughly 4,270 detached and attached homes and apartments are part of Woodbury, which opened in late 2004.
About 2,200 homes have been sold, according to Irvine Co. officials. Prices start in the $400,000 range and go to about $1.5 million.
Woodbury, near Jeffrey Road and Irvine Boulevard, is the first big part of the Irvine Co.’s massive Northern Sphere development, which could include more than 12,000 homes and apartments as well as businesses north of the former El Toro Marine base.
