Los Angeles-based landlord Arden Realty Inc., which owns about 19 properties totaling more than 3 million square feet in Orange County, has been busy buying and selling office space here in the past few weeks.
Arden, which was bought early last year by the real estate investment arm of General Electric Co., recently bought Towne Centre Plaza, a three-building office complex in Foothill Ranch totaling 205,077 square feet.
It acquired Towne Centre, along with a two-building, 196,501-square-foot complex in Phoenix,its first buy in Arizona,from Layton Belling and Associates, the Irvine-based real estate investment and management company.
Arden paid $107.5 million for the Foothill Ranch and Phoenix buildings. CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.’s Kevin Shannon, Robert Smith, James Fijan and Michael Kane represented the seller. Arden represented itself.
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Towne Centre Plaza: 205,077 square feet |
Layton Belling had owned the Foothill Ranch complex for less than a year.
It bought the offices in early 2006 as part of its $435 million acquisition of Bedford Property Investors Inc., a real estate investment trust based near Oakland. Layton Belling added nearly 7 million square feet of office and industrial space to its portfolio as a result of the Bedford buy.
Even with the Foothill Ranch deal, Arden officials said the company plans to focus on areas outside Southern California this year, with target markets including Northern California, Washington, Oregon and Arizona.
Shidler Group, a Honolulu-based commercial real estate owner, still is looking to grow here. It picked up a 15-building portfolio from an affiliate of Arden last month. The 1 million square feet of office space went for $187 million.
Three of the complexes that traded hands, totaling 10 buildings, are in OC. They include Costa Mesa’s South Coast Executive Center, the five-building Yorba Linda Business Park and Savi Tech, a four-building complex in Yorba Linda.
Eastdil Secured represented Shidler Group.
KBS Buying Spree
Newport Beach-based KBS Real Estate Investment Trust Inc. has picked up the pace of its money raising and acquisitions.
The company, headed by Chief Executive Charles Schreiber Jr.,a former Koll Development Co. investment executive,kicked off operations a year ago. By August, KBS had raised about $7 million.
Now that’s closer to $105 million, according to the latest filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. KBS wants to raise as much as $2 billion in its ongoing public offering, which is being handled through national and regional brokerages.
A handful of office and industrial property buys were announced last summer and fall. But the company had its busiest month so far in December, with three big buys totaling about $114 million.
In the largest deal, KBS announced in late December its plans to buy a three-building office portfolio in Cary, N.C., for $48 million. The buildings, on 24 acres, total 248,832 square feet. Yearly rents there are nearly $4 million.
Also in December, KBS bought three distribution buildings totaling 785,790 square feet in McDonough, Ga. The price was $37.1 million. Lastly, a deal was struck to buy a corporate research building totaling 166,574 square feet in Norwood, Mass. The 18.8-acre property went for $28.8 million.
Closer to home, KBS Realty Advisors, the real estate investment firm that oversees KBS REIT, made its own acquisition. It bought a majority interest in Paseo Del Mar, a 232,307-square-foot office building in San Diego’s Del Mar Heights. The price wasn’t disclosed. Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. sold the building. JMI Realty, the property’s developer, retains a minority stake in Paseo Del Mar.
KBS Realty was founded by Schreiber and Peter Bren, younger brother of The Irvine Company’s Donald Bren.
An affiliate of the Redwood City-based investor and developer Matteson Cos. just paid $46 million for an apartment complex in Garden Grove.
JB Matteson Institutional Capital Partners LLC, in partnership with a state pension fund and an adviser, acquired the Waterstone at the Grove Apartments, a 245-unit complex built in 1968.
The apartments went for about $188,000 each. The seller was Pacific Property Co. of Palo Alto.
JB Matteson plans to invest $4.6 million, or $19,000 per apartment, for improvements, the company said. The complex is 95% full.
