Another office-focused real estate investment trust with big Orange County ties is being bought.
The latest deal: A total of 16 OC office properties are changing hands as part of the $5.6 billion acquisition of CarrAmerica Realty Corp. by the Blackstone Group LP.
Washington, D.C.-based CarrAmerica owns 285 office properties, totaling 26 million square feet, in 12 U.S. markets. Its OC presence totals 782,000 square feet, and CarrAmerica has another 2 million square feet of space in San Diego and Los Angeles.
Local properties it owns include the four-building Scenic Business Park, which totals 139,000 square feet in Costa Mesa, and the four-building Harbor Corporate Park in Santa Ana, which totals 151,000 square feet.
For New York-based private equity firm Blackstone Group, the deal gives it a sizable OC office presence again.
Two years ago, it sold the 1.7 million-square-foot Park Place office campus in Irvine to Los Angeles-based Maguire Properties Inc. The sale of the old Fluor Corp. property went for $260 million.
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Orange Financial Center: Word & Brown expands space at complex |
The CarrAmerica-Blackstone deal followed the news in December that the holdings of fellow REIT Arden Realty Inc., based in Los Angeles, was being sold off to a unit of General Electric Co. and Chicago’s Trizec Properties. GE is taking over Arden Realty’s roughly 3.4 million-square-foot, 19-property OC portfolio as part of a $4.8 billion acquisition.
The deal hasn’t closed yet, and it’s still business as usual for Arden Realty, local officials said.
Arden Realty recently said that Word & Brown Insurance Administrators Inc. renewed a lease for its regional headquarters at Orange Financial Center, 701 and 721 S. Parker St., in Orange. The nine-year lease is valued at $24 million.
The deal expands Word & Brown’s space at the two buildings by 24,320 square feet to 90,776 square feet. The company, part of Word & Brown Cos., works with brokers to develop health benefit plans.
Tina LaMonica of Arden Realty’s OC region represented the landlord. Jason Hoffman and Mike Russell of Mohr Partners represented Word & Brown in the deal.
Growing Bigger, Staying Local
Two growing local real estate-related companies have moved offices, but are staying in OC.
In San Juan Capistrano, Birtcher Anderson Realty LLC has completed the relocation of its corporate headquarters to 31910 Del Obispo.
The real estate investment and advisory company, led by Arthur Birtcher and Bob Anderson, previously was based in Laguna Niguel.
The latest venture between the two longtime OC real estate veterans began in 2004. Business has been booming as of late. In the past six months, the company has completed $218 million in deals, including $156 million in acquisitions and $62 million in sales.
Acquisitions included a 12-building, 251,219-square-foot portfolio of industrial buildings in Southern California. Birtcher bought the properties from Newport Beach-based ZMI Real Estate Inc. for $29 million. Recent sales include 555 Anton in Costa Mesa and Plaza del Lago in Mission Viejo.
Meanwhile in Brea, Residential Mortgage Assistance Enterprise LLC just took the wraps off its new 135,000-square-foot headquarters.
The five-story building, at 6 Pointe Drive, is part of the Olen Pointe Brea office development built by Newport Beach-based Olen Properties Corp.
The subprime lender, which goes by Resmae Mortgage Corp., started operations in 2002.
It now has 458 local workers,more than double what it had a couple years ago. The company employs more than 1,000 people overall.
The company funded nearly $7 billion in loans in 2005.
Resmae is moving from a 40,000-square-foot site at 3350 E. Birch St. in Brea.
DBN Breaks Ground
Laguna Hills developer DBN Development LLC has kicked off construction at San Jacinto Esplanade, a 125,000-square-foot shopping center in the Inland Empire city of San Jacinto.
It’s the first big project for DBN, which was formed last year.
President Steve Delson, a former exec with the Mission Viejo Co., previously developed Park Plaza, the 400,000-square-foot shopping center in Aliso Viejo.
The first phase of the $20 million San Jacinto center is expected to open in the fall, and will include a Walgreen’s drug store.
A second phase of construction, adding another 75,000 square feet of space, is set to break ground in late 2007. Early plans call for a supermarket to be built at the second phase, but no anchor tenant has been announced yet.
Moorefield Construction Inc. of Los Angeles is handling construction at San Jacinto Esplanade, while Marshall BankFirst of Eden Prairie, Minn., is the construction lender for the project.
