Houston developer Hines Interests LP and partner Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. of Forth Worth, Texas, have landed a third major tenant for their office building opening in Irvine.
Fellow developer and real estate investor Bixby Land Co. of Newport Beach has signed on to lease 10,500 square feet of space at 2211 Michelson, the 266,000-square-foot white office building going up next to John Wayne Airport.
The building,certified for its environmentally friendly, green design,now is about 30% leased. Other tenants include Irvine investment firm Pathway Capital Management LLC and Wachovia Corp.
It’ll be the second move for Bixby since Chief Executive Bill Halford took over the company’s reins a year ago. The company last year moved from Long Beach to a building owned by The Irvine Company in Newport Beach.
Bixby plans to move its headquarters into 2211 Michelson this summer.
In April, Bixby struck a deal to buy $345 million worth of office buildings from Los Angeles-based Maguire Properties Inc.
“As we increase the size and scope of our real estate holdings with investments, we will expand our staff in tandem to support this growth,” Halford said.
Jay Carnahan, founding principal of Costa Mesa’s Orion Property Partners LLC, represented Bixby in the lease.
Construction of 2211 Michelson and its adjoining parking structure now is done, according to Hines. The developer plans a grand opening on May 31.
Birch Bayview Sells
Birch Bayview Plaza, a two-building office complex in Newport Beach, has sold for $35.8 million, or about $373 per square foot.
The 96,067-square-foot plaza, on Birch Street near John Wayne Airport, is 90% full. It has 10 tenants in the two, two-story office buildings.
The seller was Birch Bayview Plaza LLC, a partnership of Newport Beach-based Steadfast Cos. and McCarthy Building Cos., which co-developed the buildings. Both are tenants there.
Other tenants include architectural firms Watkins/Baile & Associates, Meeks & Partners and Scheuer Architects.
The new owner is Ferrado Bayview LLC of Newport Beach. Gil Marrero, Alan Pekarcik and Dan Vittone of Voit Commercial Brokerage LP’s Irvine office represented both parties in the deal.
Mammoth Sells, Hires
Saddleback Financial Center, a medical office building in Laguna Hills, has traded hands again.
Glenborough Realty Trust bought the four-story, 72,980-square-foot office building at 24012 Calle De La Plata. The price was $20.5 million, or about $281 per square foot.
The center was built in 1981. It’s 87% full and sold at a capitalization rate of 6.1%. Mammoth Equities LLC of San Juan Capistrano was the seller.
Mammoth bought Saddleback Financial Center a little more than two years ago for a reported $15.3 million.
In other Mammoth news, the company just hired Jack Hannigan as its national sales manager for a new division called Mammoth Realty Exchange LLC.
The division focuses on fractional ownership of office and industrial properties. Its first property is a nearly 200,000-square-foot office and industrial campus outside Atlanta.
Hannigan previously served as senior vice president of sales for California Counties Title Co.’s Orange County and Los Angeles operations.
Koll Co., the Newport Beach-based real estate developer, has secured a $130 million construction loan for a resort community it’s building in Cabo San Lucas.
The financing is for the first phase of 109 homes at Hacienda, a 24-acre oceanfront development at the tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. Plans call for 239 homes.
The first phase of homes, which average $2.4 million each, are about 85% sold. Those homes should be done late next year.
The financing, which also is set to go toward building a beach club and other amenities, is from Wachovia Bank.
The construction loan is said to be the largest yet in the Los Cabos area and could be one of the largest construction loans in Mexico this year, according to Koll Co. officials.
Astoria Loan
Closer to home, Canada’s Intergulf Development Group and the Aliso Viejo office of Miami’s Lennar Corp. recently struck a construction loan for two condominium towers they’re building at Lennar’s Central Park West development in Irvine.
CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.’s CBRE/Melody arranged a $171 million construction and mezzanine loan for Astoria, a 240-unit condominium project.
The loan is from an undisclosed European bank.
Craig Mueller and Anita Brown of CBRE/Melody’s Newport Beach office arranged the funding.
