Aliso Viejo-based Five Point Holdings Inc., the master developer of Great Park Neighborhoods in Irvine and other large projects in California, hasn’t abandoned its plans for an initial public offering, according to one of the company’s largest investors.
Five Point announced in mid-2015 that it was planning to go public via an IPO. But it has yet to file any documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the offering, which would likely make the company one of Orange County’s largest public companies in the real estate sector by market valuation.
It had held off on the plans due to a generally weak IPO market, and a choppy market over that time for homebuilding-related stock in particular.
Officials with Miami-based homebuilder Lennar Corp., which spun off of Five Point in 2009, told analysts last month that an IPO was still in the works and potentially could come sooner rather than later, thanks to an improving market for new offerings.
“Current market optimism raises the possibility that this company that’s been waiting for market conditions to reopen the IPO market might just find a window to go public,” said Lennar Chief Executive Stuart Miller in the company’s quarterly earnings call.
“We’ll see if the current sweep of optimism in the capital and stock markets sets the stage for Five Point’s future,” said Miller, who noted that Five Point “controls some of the best positioned properties in some of the most land-constrained markets in the country.”
Five Point Chief Executive Emile Haddad is Lennar’s former chief investment officer.
Five Point would be Orange County’s second real estate-related company to go public this year.
In February, Foundation Building Materials Inc., a Tustin-based distributor of wallboard and suspended ceiling systems, among other items, was OC’s first IPO of the year, raising $179.2 million.
The offering has had mixed results.
The company, whose stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange as FBM, initially proposed selling 12.8 million shares at between $17 and $19.
It ultimately went public at $14, a sign of flagging investor interest. The downsized offering earned the company about $161 million in proceeds.
Its stock has risen since the IPO, though, and now trades at around $17, giving it a market valuation of about $740 million as of last week.
Foundation was founded in 2011 and has pursued an aggressive acquisition strategy, particularly over the past three years. The company began with a single branch in Southern California, and now has 210 branches across the United States and Canada.
Dallas-based private equity firm Lone Star Funds remains the company’s largest investor after the IPO, holding more than 60% of Foundation’s stock.
Radius Expansion
Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, a Tustin-based biopharmaceutical products developer and manufacturer, is expanding operations into recently renovated industrial space next to its headquarters.
The company recently completed a 42,000-square-foot lease expansion at 14191 Myford Road, a 110,000-square-foot industrial property near the intersection of Jamboree Road and Santa Ana (5) Freeway.
The building is owned by Irvine real estate developer and investor CapRock Partners, which bought it in 2014 for a reported $14.8 million and has put a few million dollars more into creative-office updates. The building, which is next to Peregrine’s main headquarters, is now called Radius.
Peregrine already leased about 42,000 square feet of space there. The new deal, which gives it a total of 84,000 square feet at Radius, will “expand our biomanufacturing capacity, which we believe will further support the growth of our contract manufacturing business,” the company said last month in its latest quarterly report.
Scott Read of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank represented CapRock in the new transaction, which brings Radius up to 75% leased.
Peregrine is getting a little more than $1.2 million in tenant improvement allowances for the new space, whose lease runs at least until January 2027. It’ll pay about $1.76 per square foot, per month for the new space at the start of the lease, according to regulatory filings.