Last month’s announcement that Irvine-based subprime mortgage lender BNC Mortgage Inc. was shutting down put another big chunk of office space back on the market.
BNC, owned by Lehman Brothers Holdings Corp., had been leasing multiple floors at 1901 Main St., a 172,000-square-foot building near John Wayne Airport. The lender signed a seven-year, 63,000-square-foot lease back in 2002, paying monthly rents of about $2.30 per square foot, according to reports. It took another 10,000 square feet at the building in 2003.
That space has been put back on the market,at much higher rates. The space now has an asking monthly rental rate of $3.15 per square foot, according to CoStar Group Inc. The eight-story building, at Main Street and MacArthur Boulevard, has about 91,000 square feet, or about half the building, open. Voit Commercial Brokerage LP’s Irvine office is marketing the space.
About 500 BNC Mortgage employees in Orange County have lost their jobs since August, according to state employment data. Nearly another 100 workers in Corona have also been let go. Companywide, about 1,200 layoffs are resulting from the closure of BNC Mortgage, according to Lehman Brothers.
Broker Honors
Broker Thomas Murphy, a vice president in the Irvine office of Jones Lang LaSalle, just got a big honor from his hometown.
Murphy, a standout high school pitcher in Cleveland, and later at Ohio University, was one of eight people who were inducted into the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame last month. The 31-year-old hall of fame counts 448 inductees.
Among local sports fans, he’s better known for his play with the California Angels, who drafted him in 1967. Murphy had an 11-year career in the big leagues.
It’s his second award of the year. The other one was business-related. Murphy, who represents both landlords and tenants in leases, was awarded one of The Irvine Company’s Broker of the Year nods earlier this year.
Befitting the town that also holds the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Murphy was inducted to Cleveland’s sports hall of fame the same day as Elvis. Well Elvis Grbac that is, the Cleveland-born former NFL quarterback.
South County Sale
Rancho Ortega Plaza, a 23,122-square-foot retail and office building in San Juan Capistrano, just traded hands at what brokers say was a record-low capitalization rate.
The final sales price for the center, just off Ortega Highway, was $11.7 million, or about $500 per square foot. The buyer was Chino-based Minaberry Family Trust, who paid all cash in the deal.
The sale closed at a cap rate of 4.92%, the lowest expected initial return for a stabilized mixed-use center in South Orange County, said brokers with Sperry Van Ness, who worked on the deal.
The 2.2-acre property was built in 2000 and is full. Tenants include Starbucks, Bank of America and Tannins Restaurant.
Damon Wyler, Brian Sperry and Bill Casas of Sperry Van Ness’ Irvine office represented the seller, HLB Properties LLC of San Juan Capistrano. The buyer was represented by Rancon Real Estate.
A local Web site that tracks sales,or a lack there of,of suburban homes in the area, the Irvine Housing Blog, recently celebrated its first anniversary.
The blog, which counts four core writers, has become a must-view site in the past year, spotlighting homes for sale where asking prices don’t often mesh with the reality of the current market.
The site is heavy on attitude, not to mention references to random musical acts, but it backs its eye-opening profiles and market commentary up with a heavy amount of statistics and charts.
The site started a little more than year ago, near the peak of the market. As the housing sector has struggled, the site has flourished,the Irvine Housing Blog said it had more than 550,000 views in August.
It has also picked up some national attention, being name-checked in online publication Slate’s infamous “Real Morons of Orange County” profile of the area’s subprime and real estate market back in July.
Infallible Media
A big profile on layoffs of OC’s mortgage workers in the Washington Post a week ago noted that Irvine was the center of the subprime sector, due in part to it being the headquarters of Ameriquest Mortgage Co. Ameriquest actually is based in Orange.
