COMMERCIAL
San Diego-based Burnham Pacific Properties Inc. has sold its interest in Olympiad Plaza, a 94,000-square-foot market and drug retail center in Mission Viejo.
Burnham Pacific, a real estate investment trust focusing on retail properties, sold its 45,600-square-foot share of the plaza for $11.8 million to a joint venture of Developers Diversified Realty, Coventry Real Estate Partners and Prudential Real Estate Investors. Albertson’s and Sav-On Drugs are Olympiad Plaza’s anchor tenants.
The property was Burnham’s lone holding in OC, which owns retail property along the Pacific Coast, in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.
For Solana Beach-based Developers Diversified, the purchase is part of its mission of acquiring and managing shopping centers. Currently Developers Diversified owns and manages some 240 shopping centers in 41 states, totaling more than 58 million square feet. Prudential Real Estate is part of The Prudential Insurance Company of America. Coventry Real Estate Partners owns and manages $1 billion of retail property totaling 8.5 million square feet.
Wohl Invests, Recycles Property
Irvine-based Wohl Investment Co. has finished upgrading two retail centers in Orange. In the first project, Wohl recycled a light-industrial park at the northwest corner of Katella and Glassell avenues into Katella Center, a 47,000-square-foot retail center.
In the second project, Wohl rehabbed the 63,000-square-foot Katella Plaza shopping center at the northeast corner of Katella and Glassell.
“Katella Center and Katella Plaza are located at a corner where 60,000 cars pass by daily, making it an ideal location,” said Pete Desforges, president of Wohl. “With virtually no land available in infill areas, properties built for a use that was appropriate 20 to 30 years ago when there was ample land are prime candidates for recycling to uses that meet today’s needs. Our approach is we would rather not tear things down when they have value.”
New tenants include Quizno’s, Hobby People and Elite Communications, which join existing tenants Pep Boys, Marie Callender, McDonald’s and Chevron. Total costs on the projects topped $2 million.
Bits & Pieces:
Irvine-based Snyder Langston has finished construction of the $5.2 million Concours Corporate Center in Ontario. Forecast Commercial, a division of the Forecast Group LP, hired Snyder Langston for the 80,000-square-foot, three-story, Class A office building. Tenants include Forecast Commercial on the first and third floors and Wells Fargo Bank on half of the second floor Irvine-based Opus West Corp. has broken ground on the 341,700-square-foot Rancho Technology Park in Rancho Cucamonga. Construction on the two-building industrial and manufacturing development is set for January 2002 Tustin-based Coreland Carlson has relocated its Inland Empire regional office from Ontario to Corona Corporate Center II in Corona. Rincon Holdings LLC has selected Coreland Carlson to manage the newly constructed, 54,500-square-foot Corona Corporate Center II The Orange County chapter of the Building Industry Association of Southern California is hosting the third Annual Ruby Slipper Awards luncheon Aug. 29 at the Irvine Marriott Hotel. More info: (949) 553-9500 … Irvine-based Haskell Constructors Ltd., a subsidiary of Jacksonville, Florida-based The Haskell Co., has completed construction on interior improvements for a 38,640-square-foot skate park and retail store in Moorestown, N.J. Also, Haskell Constructors named J. Peter Tuma as vice president of the company’s industrial division in Irvine… Irvine-based Related Cos. is developing 450 Glenneyre, a 30-unit residential community in the business district of Laguna Beach Newport Beach-based JBZ Architecture + Planning has been named to design the bungalow-styled in-fill community Irvine-based Advanced Construction Solutions Inc. is handling construction on the 22,800-square-foot Catalina Professional Center, a two-story office and medical building at 2090 N. Tustin Ave. in Santa Ana.
RESIDENTIAL
Midyear numbers continue trickling in. In the latest batch of housing news, there’s a mixture of good and bad information to mull over. The California Association of Realtors released the latest numbers concerning affordability, median home prices and home sales.
The median price of an existing home in California hit a record during the second quarter at $258,110. That number was up 7.5% from the same period a year ago. But the number of homes sold dropped 6.6%, down to 509,180 from 545,340 a year ago.
In Orange County, the median home price hit $352,740, up 9.8% from last year, while sales were down 4.6%. No OC communities were among the top 10 highest median communities, but Laguna Hills was second among communities with the largest increase in their median home price at 46%.
The state’s housing affordability index stood at 32% in June. That was an increase of two percentage points compared to the same period a year ago, but was down two points from May.
In OC, the affordability index remained unchanged from May, at 29%, up from 25% last year.
