2015 has the makings of a blockbuster year for large real estate deals, based on the first few months of transactions in Orange County.
Four local office, apartment, land and hotel deals topping the $100 million mark have already been announced in the first part of the year, and several more big-dollar deals are on the way, according to brokers, regulatory filings, and real estate sources.
By comparison, only two transactions valued at more than $100 million—a pair of office sales—are represented on the Business Journal’s listing of the top deals of 2014, which features Orange County’s top 10 office and industrial sales and leases and the largest apartment and retail sales (see listings starting on page 28).
Sales are ranked by dollar amount, and leases by square footage.
CoStar Group Inc. provided the data, which is supplemented by details of other transactions reported by the Business Journal during the year.
A few of the 2014 listings already pale in comparison to some recent sales. Notable transactions taking place in the early stages of 2015 include:
• The sale of the 4000 MacArthur office complex in Newport Beach. The two buildings, acquired by a venture between Hines Interests LP and Oaktree Capital Management LP, are believed to have traded hands for at least $120 million.
• The 250-room Montage Laguna Beach sold for $360 million to Chicago-based Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc. The blockbuster hotel sale, announced in February, tops the $320 million paid by KSL Capital Partners for the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point last year in terms of overall value and per-room price.
• The 400-unit Charter Apartments in Irvine sold for an estimated $112 million, the most expensive local apartment deal since late 2013. The complex on Jamboree Road was renamed Sofi Irvine by its new owners, an affiliate of Palo Alto-based Pacific Urban Residential.
• The sale of land at Great Park Neighborhoods to Broadcom Corp. The chipmaker is paying $128 million for the 72 acres that will hold its new office campus. The deal closed last week.
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Other nine-figure deals on tap include a trio of retail properties in Rancho Santa Margarita totaling about 151,000 square feet.
The centers, built by affiliates of K&G Equities in Dana Point, are expected to fetch a combined price of more than $103 million, or nearly $683 per square foot.
That would easily surpass the largest confirmed local retail sale of last year, the $48.5 million sale of Amerige Heights Town Center in Fullerton, not to mention the estimated $64 million sale of the retail portion of the Strand mixed-use property in Huntington Beach that closed last month.
The high asking square footage price for the Rancho Santa Margarita properties of Plaza El Paseo I and II, Las Flores, and Santa Margarita Marketplace reflects the “lack of quality product” that’s recently come to market in coastal regions like OC, said Phil Voorhees, senior vice president for the national retail investment group of CBRE Group Inc.
The portfolio is generating interest from foreign buyers, as well as institutional investors and local buyers, according to Voorhees, whose team has the listing for the properties.