COMMERCIAL
The Santa Ana office tower that holds the headquarters of Grubb & Ellis Co. has a new leasing agent: Grubb & Ellis.
Earlier this month, the real estate investor and brokerage took over marketing and leasing for Tustin Centre, a nearly 200,000-square-foot building on North Tustin Avenue in Santa Ana near the city line with Tustin.
The building’s about 90% full.
Grubb & Ellis takes up about two floors there and has its name on the building, which faces the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway.
The building previously was the headquarters for Triple Net Properties LLC, prior to its parent company NNN Realty Advisors Inc.’s acquisition of then-Chicago based Grubb & Ellis late last year. CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. had been handling leasing for the building.
In addition to the 10-floor tower, Tustin Centre is also getting a four-story addition. An 80,533-square-foot building is under construction at 1525 N. Tustin,one of the few offices being built in Central County.
The property should be completed later next year and will be certified as environmentally friendly. No tenants have been named for the building, which is advertising monthly rents of $3.25 per square foot.
Both properties are owned by the Laguna Hills-based development firm Muller Co. and an investment client of New York-based money manager BlackRock Inc.
“We believe many firms in Central County end up renewing instead of relocating because there are so few buildings that have been built within the past five years,” Muller principal Jon Muller said in a statement.
Greg May and Oliver Fleener of Grubb & Ellis’ Newport Beach office and Jon Swallow of the company’s Anaheim office are handling leasing at both buildings. May said the new property would suit a company such as a law firm that would like the chance to design their space from the ground up.
Cookie Lee’s HQ Sold
The Tustin headquarters of Cookie Lee Inc., a jewelry maker that sells through independent salespeople, has been sold.
The 79,000-square-foot industrial building, at 15771 Red Hill Ave., was purchased by 15771 Red Hill LLC for $12 million, or about $150 per square foot.
Cookie Lee, one of the county’s largest women-owned businesses, takes up about half of the property. The company bought the building in 2005 for $8.9 million.
Michael Hartel of Voit Commercial Brokerage LP represented the buyer, while Gregg Haley and Kelly Kayl of CB Richard Ellis represented the seller.
RESIDENTIAL
Costa Mesa-based real estate agency First Team Real Estate has taken the wraps off its new office in Newport Beach.
The $2 million office holds brokers, as well as space for escrow, mortgage, title and commercial real estate services. The building at 4 Corporate Plaza, which overlooks Pacific Coast Highway, is also available free of charge for charities, First Team said. The office’s main area for events offers space for more than 200 people.
First Team was founded in 1976 by Cameron Merage and is now the largest independent real estate company in Southern California.
His brothers Paul and David Merage started Chef America Inc., inventor of micro-wavable Hot Pockets, which was sold to Nestl & #233; SA in 2002. The Merages are big OC
philanthropists.
