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Cost-cutting moves by Lennar Corp. now are extending to the Miami-based homebuilder’s local headquarters in Aliso Viejo.
Space at the company’s five-story headquarters, at 25 Enterprise in the Summit Office Campus, has been put up for sublease. The office faces the San Joaquin Hills (73) Toll Road and is next to the new Pacific Life Insurance Co. building at Parker Properties LP’s Summit.
The entire building, which totals about 147,430 square feet, has been listed as being available, although Lennar has no plans to relocate, according to officials with the Irvine office of brokerage Newmark Knight Frank, which is handling the listing.
Right now, Lennar’s local operations have been consolidated to three of the building’s five floors. The 29,378-square-foot fifth floor is unused and is being marketed. A few sublease deals are expected to be completed shortly, according to Newmark’s James Sladack and Jeff Foster.
Following that, the second floor should be next for a sublease. Space at the building is being listed at $2.15 per square foot for subleases that will run through November 2011.
Lennar signed a 137,352-square-foot lease at the building back in 2003, moving several hundred workers from Mission Viejo and other local offices. The 7.5-year deal was valued at about $27 million at the time it was struck.
The sublease news is the latest sign of downsizing for Lennar, the country’s second-largest homebuilder. The company’s slowed down local housing developments in Anaheim and Irvine during the economic downturn, and in December sold off some 11,000 lots across the country for $525 million.
It’s also cut back on staff in Aliso Viejo,where much of Lennar’s day-to-day operations are run.
The company is estimated to employ about 180 people in OC, down about 30% from a year ago.
Display Boys Relocating
DB Studios Inc., a seller of retail displays better known as Display Boys, is moving its headquarters to Santa Ana.
The company, which had been based in Irvine, signed a seven-year lease for 109,987 square feet at 3100 S. Susan St. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The monthly asking lease rate for the space had been 67 cents per square foot.
It’s one of 11 Santa Ana industrial buildings owned by Pacific Realty Associates LP,also known as PacTrust,that total more than 1 million square feet.
Display Boys, which builds store displays and tradeshow booths, started out in Orange County in 1989. It’s best known for its work with the area’s surfwear companies.
The company had been on the hunt for a building for its expanding production and fulfillment operations. It will be consolidating its headquarters and production warehouses at the new building. It had been working out of a couple buildings in Irvine since 2002. Prior to that, its operations were in Costa Mesa.
The new space is about 40% larger than Display Boys’ combined old space, according to Andy Walburger of Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services’ Newport Beach office, who, along with Jim Snyder, represented the tenant in the deal.
PacTrust was represented by Dave Desper of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.’s Newport Beach office.
Display Boys is taking over space being vacated by a 2006 Business Journal cover star, designer bottling and gift products company Shonfeld’s USA Inc. and its offshoot liquor venture Boz Spirits Inc.
Shonfeld’s USA is staying in Sana Ana, moving to 2850 Redhill Ave. Boz Spirits recently was acquired by a Florida-based company and now operates as Innovative Liquors. It has moved its headquarters to Newport Beach at 3 San Joaquin Plaza.
Sanderson Sale
Irvine developer Sanderson J. Ray Corp. has been offloading some of its smaller local properties as of late.
Most recently, the company sold a 9,673-square-foot retail center in La Palma. The property is within Center Pointe at La Palma Business Park, a 650,000-square-foot office park near Knott’s Berry Farm.
The retail center,which has a FedEx Kinko’s and Sushi Ya Japanese Restaurant,went for $4.9 million, or about $507 per square foot.
Irvine brokerage Faris Lee Investments’ Dennis Vaccaro represented Sanderson J. Ray.
The brokerage also worked on last month’s $5.5 million sale of a retail property the developer owns in Santa Ana. Jesse Nunoz and Bill Gloege of Colliers International Inc.’s Century City office represented the buyer, a private investor from Malibu who paid all cash in the La Palma deal.
Sanderson J. Ray is selling their smaller assets at this time and has future plans in the works for some larger development opportunities, according to Vaccaro.
