Platinum Joins Cooperative; OC Apartment Market Update
Laguna Niguel-based Birtcher Real Estate Group has acquired the Arrow Business Park in Rancho Cucamonga for $17.4 million.
In buying the nine-building, 395,639-square-foot industrial campus, Birtcher Real Estate teamed with an affiliate of New York-based Praedium Group LP to form Arrow Business Park Associates LLC.
Located on 21.9 acres, Arrow Business Park was completed in 1989. Tenants include pipe and tubing company Searing Industries Inc. and online logistics company AtomicBox.com.
“This property is a tremendous addition to our portfolio,” said Bob Anderson, president and co-chairman of Birtcher Real Estate. “Arrow Business Park is attractive to tenants because its product mix provides them an ability to grow within the park, and its proximity to businesses such as Ontario Mills Mall, the California Speedway, Empire Lakes Golf Course and Quakes Stadium is a great amenity base for their employees.”
Nearby transportation hubs also were a selling point, according to Birtcher Real Estate. Arrow Business Park is located within three miles of Ontario International Airport, rail lines and two interstate highways.
With the Arrow Business Park buy, Birtcher Real Estate has added roughly 2 million square feet of industrial property in Southern California to its portfolio. The company also added some 1.2 million square feet of property management contracts to its Arizona portfolio with the acquisition of Marathon Management of Phoenix.
Scott Ostlund, William Heim and Michael Chavez of Lee & Associates in Rancho Cucamonga represented the buyer and seller of Arrow Business Park, Aetna Life Insurance Co.
COMMERCIAL
Local Mortgage Firm Goes Co-op
Irvine-based Platinum Capital Group, along with Howard Hanna Financial Services Inc. of Pittsburgh and Pulaski Mortgage Co. of Little Rock, Ark., has joined St. Louis-based Lenders One Mortgage Co. Cooperative.
Lenders One has 12 member companies with more than 200 branch locations across the country. But the organization says it is looking to expand to 150 members within the next 36 months.
Member companies traditionally close between $100 million and $2 billion annually. By pooling their resources, the independent companies are able to reduce their annual expenses by up to 10% and increase their revenue by $100,000 for every $100 million originated, according to Lenders One.
According to the cooperative, Platinum Capital Group and the other two new members fit the independent member profile the group seeks.
“They all have a long history, are well-known and want to participate on the front end of this ever-changing business,” said Scott Stern, Lenders One president.
The cooperative allows companies like Platinum Capital Group to compete with large corporations by offering more competitive rates. On behalf of its independent mortgage companies, Lenders One’s management team negotiates terms on mortgage products and services.
RESIDENTIAL
Apartments See Slower Rent Growth
Phoenix-based Hendricks & Partners released its latest figures on the Orange County apartment market. And the indicators point to a slowing.
In the 12 months ended June, the average OC rent increased 8.1%, from $1,100 to $1,190, compared to an 8.9% gain recorded in the year-ago period.
South Orange County was hit the hardest, where the average rent grew only 6.1% to $1,408, after growing 9.1% the previous year.
While rent growth slowed, the overall average vacancy rate climbed from 2.7% in the second quarter of 2000 to 3.6% in the second quarter of 2001. Again, South County suffered the biggest blow. A large volume of construction in South County bumped the vacancy rate from 3.4% to 4.8%.
OC apartment sales rose during the first half of the year, though the average price was mixed from a year earlier. Twenty apartment complexes changed hands through June, at an average price per unit of $76,380 or $92.11 per square foot. In the first six months of 2000, 16 properties sold at an average price of $85,954, an average of $88.36 per square foot.
Analysts at Hendricks & Partners pointed to some overbuilding, especially in South County, and Boeing Co.’s transfer of 1,100 jobs from Huntington Beach to Texas and Florida as a potential further blow to the local apartment market.
