CB Richard Ellis Group Inc., the county’s largest commercial real estate brokerage and property manager, has finalized the makeup of its Orange County management team.
The company named Jeffrey Osborn managing director for its Anaheim office. Osborn, who’s moving to CB Richard Ellis from Cushman & Wakefield Inc., will oversee more than 100 employees in Anaheim.
The announcement comes a few weeks after the company named Jeff Moore as its senior managing director for OC operations. Moore is based in the company’s Newport Beach office. He’s replacing Senior Managing Director Sherry Bower, who is retiring.
Osborn has more than 20 years of experience in local commercial real estate,he started his career at CB Richard Ellis in 1986. He also served as the head of OC operations for the former Cushman Realty Co. from 1993 to 2001.
In addition to brokerage services, Osborn will be responsible for the office’s business development, client relations and property and facility management.
The Anaheim office ranked No. 7 on the Business Journal’s latest list of brokerages last year, with $970 million in deals. The company’s Newport Beach office was No. 2, with $1.8 billion in deals.
Cushman Grabs Bixby Account
Cushman & Wakefield has landed the property management contract for real estate developer and investor Bixby Land Co.’s office, industrial and retail properties in Southern California.
The portfolio totals 3.4 million square feet. That includes 1.6 million square feet of industrial, 600,000 square feet of retail and 1.3 million square feet of office space. It doesn’t include Bixby’s holdings in Northern California and Arizona.
Cindy Burger, a director in Cushman & Wakefield’s Irvine-based client solutions group, will be managing the portfolio. Cindy Osmundson will be supervising the office part of the portfolio.
Bixby last week moved its headquarters from Newport Beach to Irvine, where it’s leasing space at Hines Interests LP’s new 2211 Michelson tower.
Sperry’s Georgia Buy
In a May column, I noted that Irvine’s SVN Equities LLC,the investment offshoot of brokerage Sperry Van Ness,was looking to buy about $200 million worth of office, industrial, retail and apartment buildings this year.
The company’s a little closer to that goal now, following a $60.6 million deal in the suburbs of Atlanta.
SVN Equities bought a 19-building portfolio in Norcross, Ga., totaling a little more than 1 million square feet.
Properties in the transaction, which sold for about $59 per square foot, include both flex office and industrial buildings. Boston-based General Investment & Development Cos. was the seller.
The buildings are part of Gwinnett Park, a 230-acre business park about 24 miles northeast of Atlanta. It’s the second big acquisition in the area for SVN Equities, according to Burton Young, the company’s president. A little more than a year ago, it bought a 706,000-square-foot business park in Norcross.
KBS Nabs Opus Portfolio
Newport Beach’s KBS Real Estate Investment Trust has inked its biggest and most expensive deal to date.
The company, led by Chief Executive Charles Schreiber Jr., is paying $124.5 million for a 2.3 million-square-foot industrial portfolio owned by Minnesota’s Opus Corp.
The sale includes nine buildings, including office and warehouse space, and multiple buildings in Minnesota, Ohio and Texas. None of the buildings are local.
The portfolio sold for about $54 per square foot.
The buildings are 97% full and were built from 1992 to 2006. The annual base rent for the properties is about $8.5 million.
KBS is funding the deal with a $76.4 million bridge loan and proceeds from its ongoing public offering, which kicked off about two years ago. It has raised nearly $550 million to date.
The company is an offshoot of KBS Realty Advisors LLC, the investment company led by Schreiber and Peter Bren, brother of The Irvine Company’s Donald Bren.
Meet Windstar
San Diego’s Nexus Properties Inc., the developer behind Stadium Lofts,the first residential project built in Anaheim’s Platinum Triangle,has a new name: Windstar LLC.
The name change aligns the La Jolla-based company with its housing subsidiary, Windstar Communities.
In addition to the 390-unit Stadium Lofts, Windstar’s other big local project is a mixed-use development proposed near John Wayne Airport called Irvine Crossings.
The name change also alleviates some confusion. Two other real estate firms were using the Nexus name. Windstar isn’t related to Nexus Cos., the Curt Olson-led developer building Skyline at MacArthur Place, a $350 million high-rise tower in its hometown of Santa Ana.
