Whittlesey Doyle Busy Dealing in Inland Empire
COMMERCIAL
Garden Grove-based The Abbey Company has begun work on a $500,000 remodeling effort at its La Mesa Village Center in suburban San Diego.
Purchased last year as part of a pool of three properties from John Hancock Life Insurance, The Abbey Company figures a face lift for the 25-year-old office and retail center will help fill the 35,000 square feet of available space, about 40% of the total center.
The remodeling is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
“We went for the pop,a new appearance with a more modern feel,” said Brett Albrecht, vice president of asset management for the Abbey Co. “Over the next 18 months, we expect to see the center over 90% leased.”
The marketing staff in Orange County will be looking for new tenants. Rates will run in the $1.15 to $1.25 range per month for a triple-net lease contract, according to Albrecht.
“There is a good mix of older product in that area, but it’s close to the Grossmont Center, which is a newer regional mall,” he said.
Older retail and office space in the area is going for as low as 90 cents a square foot now. But higher-end space is renting for $2.25 a square foot to $2.45 a square foot, said Albrecht.
“So we’re aiming for the middle of that market,” he added.
Lab Leaseback
Laboratory Construction Specialists Inc., which about 18 months ago purchased the R & D; building at 37 Brookline in Aliso Viejo, has sold the property.
The new owner, a private investor from the Los Angeles area, will lease the 5,640-square-foot facility back to Laboratory Construction. The seven-year lease deal starts at $1.35 a square foot and increases by about 4% a year, according to sources.
37 Brookline LLC, which bought the building, paid slightly more than $1 million for the property. That works out to around $183 a square foot.
Laboratory Construction, which designs and builds clean rooms for high-tech firms, purchased the facility for much less.
“But they bought it as a shell,” said Christine Bowen, a senior vice president at Lee & Associates in Irvine. “They put a lot of improvements into the building, which increased the value substantially.”
Bowen represented both parties in the deal, along with Lee & Associates’ John Matus, also a senior vice president in the company’s Irvine office.
RESIDENTIAL
Whittlesey Doyle has been on a roll the past few months.
The Irvine-based land brokering firm has helped close more than 2,100 lot deals in the Inland Empire, according to company officials. The nine recent transactions by Whittlesey Doyle are estimated to total around $36 million.
Tom Doyle, a principal of the company, completed seven transactions in Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Temecula, Menifee and Riverside. Those deals totaled 1,990 lots and included the $10 million sale of Moreno Valley Ranch to Tustin-based Highpointe Communities.
The other company principal, Les Whittlesey, completed transactions in Riverside and San Bernardino. Those deals included one involving 114 lots in the planned community of Victoria Grove in Riverside. The lots were purchased for $8 million by Costa Mesa-based Compass Homes from Inland Communities of Newport Beach.
In addition, Whittlesey represented both parties in the sale of 73 lots in San Bernardino from Costa Mesa-based JMS Homes to Steven Walker Homes of Riverside.
Moonlight in Pacoima
Newport Beach-based Steadfast Properties has sold its 108-unit Moonlight Garden Apartments in Pacoima in the San Fernando Valley for more than $6.1 million.
The buyer was Peter Wang, a Mountain View investor.
Steadfast specializes in buying multifamily properties using federal tax credits and bond financing, according to Mark McDonald of Hendricks & Partners.
“They’re a growing company with units in Arizona and Hawaii, besides throughout California,” he added.
McDonald helped broker the deal with Scott Miller, also of Hendricks & Partners in Los Angeles.
Steadfast got $56,713 a unit for Moonlight Gardens, or $66.80 a square foot.
“This group bought it out of foreclosure, so they sold it for a good price,” said McDonald. “The market is a lot higher now, so the buyer was happy and so was the seller.”
