Chapman Pays $9M for Orange Industrial Park
By CHRIS CZIBORR
Chapman University has paid $8.9 million for a nearly 200,000-square-foot Orange industrial park as part of the school’s long-term expansion plans.
The university bought the West Palm Industrial Park in Orange last month from Commerce-based Southern California Indus-trial Fund.
“West Palm represents an area we would consider developing in the future,” said Gary Brahm, Chapman’s vice president of finance and administration. “Classes and labs are possibilities, but a future purpose hasn’t yet been determined.”
Chapman President Jim Doti referred to the industrial park in a speech late last month.
“I’d love to see graduate housing in that area,” Doti said. “This acquisition allows us to dream.”
The university’s plans for the site are at least a decade off, Brahm said. For now, the Orange-based school will serve as landlord and the park’s current tenants are set to stay put. Orange-based St. Joseph Health System and Laguna Hills-based Del Taco Inc. have offices in the park.
The park is about a block west of the university and includes a mix of brick buildings common in Old Towne Orange as well as more typical industrial facilities with loading docks.
This is the school’s second real estate buy in recent years. Four years ago, Chapman paid about $6.7 million for the Central Orange Business Park, which also spans about 200,000 square feet.
“We’ve had that one leased out and now are in the process of adding it to our specific expansion plans,” Brahm said.
Chapman is working to get entitlements for the Central Orange park, with plans to expand in a couple of years, according to Brahm.
The school intends to develop one of the two blocks of the Central Orange park for the university’s School of Film & Television, Brahm said. Both of Chapman’s industrial parks contain several buildings.
“Both these parcels are located close to campus and both represent areas of future expansion,” Brahm said. “They give us a solid return on our endowments, and they also represent an area where we can expand in the future. But currently both of them represent good value and investments for the university,and they are a very appropriate way for the university to expand in the future.”
The university has no immediate plans to acquire more real estate, he said.
“But we are always interested in areas that make sense for the university to pursue ownership,” he said.
Michael Hefner and Alan Pekarcik of Voit Commercial Brokerage represented Chapman as well as the seller of the West Palm Industrial Park.
