Shea Properties of Aliso Viejo has a big deal on its hands in Denver.
The commercial real estate owner and developer, part of Walnut-based J.F. Shea Co., is paying $150 million for land and buildings in Denver.
Shea Properties and Shea Homes, another J.F. Shea unit, are buying the land and buildings at the Denver Technological Center from British shipping company Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co.
What does $150 million buy in and around Denver?
Eight office buildings in the city’s premier business park, a shopping center, the 1,600-acre Meridian International Business Center, and Meridian Village, an 800-acre masterplanned community in Douglas County, Colo.
Also part of the deal: land for offices, shops and apartments.
A newspaper story out of Colorado estimates the deal adds about 1,300 acres of developable land to Shea Properties’ pipeline. Shea Properties now has close to 5,000 acres of developable land in and around Denver.
Shea Properties has projects in the works totaling more than 10 million square feet of commercial and retail space and 4,500 apartments.
The company is developing in California, Colorado and Arizona.
More Cash For Hager Pacific
After selling one of the larger indoor malls in the Southland, Hager Pacific Properties appears to be stepping up its investment ambitions.
In January, Rob Neal, executive vice president for the Newport Beach-based company, put Hager Pacific’s investment goal for 2006 in the $300 million range.
Now the company’s executives say they are looking to invest as much as $400 million. And they want to do so by summer.
Hager Pacific usually does its own deals, without other investors or financing.
The recent sale of the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza gives Hager Pacific cash for deals. The company is selling the 860,000-square-foot mall to Chicago-based Capri Capital Advisors LLC, an African-American owned firm that invests in minority areas.
Capri Capital cofounder Daryl Carter runs the company’s mortgage business from Irvine.
The sales price for the 43-acre mall was more than $130 million. Capri Capital bought the mall for an undisclosed institutional investor.
Hager Pacific had owned the mall, which includes a Sears, Robinsons-May and Wal-Mart, since 2003.
Reza Etedali of Irvine-based Reza Investment Group represented both parties in the sale.
Hager Pacific buys, redevelops and then sells shopping centers, office and industrial buildings and apartments.
Most of the company’s focus has been on Southern California.
Recently, it made a 1.2 million-square-foot buy in Detroit.
Upgrade For Seal Beach Center
The Seal Beach Center, built in 1960, is getting an $8 million makeover.
Real estate investment trust Regency Centers of Jacksonville, Fla., is starting a redevelopment of the shopping center.
Plans call for a 48,000-square-foot Pavilions grocery store. Also anchoring the center on Pacific Coast Highway and Balboa Avenue is a 15,000-square-foot drive-thru pharmacy.
According to the Seal Beach Planning Commission, the redevelopment stands to boost the center from 90,706 square feet to 103,315 square feet.
The center “suffers from outdated architecture and limited landscaping, along with other issues,” said Erwin Bucy, vice president of investments for Regency.
Regency has close to 400 shopping centers totaling 50.8 million square feet.
Its development and redevelopment pipeline contains about $2 billion worth of projects.
Other local properties include Santa Ana Downtown Plaza and Irvine’s Heritage Plaza.
Good news has been in short supply for Orange County’s subprime mortgage lending industry of late amid legal issues, missed earnings and layoffs.
That’s why Irvine-based New Century Financial Corp.’s fourth-quarter results dropped like a bomb.
New Century, which buys and makes loans to borrowers with imperfect credit, said earlier this month that fourth-quarter profit rose 45% from a year earlier to $114 million.
Wall Street was expecting $101 million. The news boosted the company’s stock by about 10%.
New Century has been charging more to borrowers and cut commissions it pays to mortgage brokers who generate loans. Acquisitions also helped the company in the fourth quarter.
The company and key rival Ameriquest Mortgage Co. of Orange could be stealing borrowers away from other lenders.
Calabasas-based Countrywide Financial Corp.’s Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo recently blamed Ameriquest and New Century for sacrificing industry profits for the sake of keeping market share as the mortgage business slows.
Whether New Century’s profit growth will hold is unclear.
New Century declined to offer guidance for 2006.
“The operating environment and secondary market conditions remain uncertain,” the company said.
New Century also is switching chief executives. Brad Morrice, vice chairman, president and chief operating officer, is set to become chief executive on July 1.
Morrice replaces Robert Cole, who will stay on as executive chairman. Both Morrice and Cole are founders.
