The big news coming from Los Angeles-based Maguire Properties Inc.’s latest quarterly earnings call is that the real estate investment trust is no longer up for sale.
The company, a big real estate owner and developer in Orange County, is “no longer pursuing” a sale, Chief Executive Rob Maguire told analysts during the call earlier this month.
Reports suggested that The Irvine Company along with Brookfield Asset Management Inc. of Toronto and Thomas Properties Group Inc. of Los Angeles had considered buying all or parts of Maguire’s holdings, which all are in Southern California.
“We got some attractive prices” for buildings, Maguire said. “We felt we had an obligation to look” at selling.
Maguire had a few interesting OC-related tidbits to disclose during the conference call.
The loss of major tenant ConAgra Foods Inc. at its Park Place complex in Irvine is being seen as positive. Omaha, Neb.-based ConAgra gave up about 260,000 square feet of office space last year, and is paying close to $20 million to end the lease.
Maguire said it expects to get a tenant to pay nearly double what ConAgra was paying.
Also, more development is planned for Park Place, even after Maguire’s 3161 Michelson tower is completed later this year.
Additional ground work continues at the complex and should be done by next spring. Then, more development could start, the company said. The site is zoned for an additional 700,000 square feet of offices, 350,000 square feet of stores, 1 million square feet of homes and a hotel.
As for 3161 Michelson, the largest of several office towers going up near John Wayne Airport, the company is aiming to have the building about 70% full in the next few months.
“It will be the trophy building in Orange County, for sure,” Maguire said.
Irvine subprime mortgage lender New Century Financial Corp., which is struggling with a downturn in its business and other issues, is set to take the largest chunk of the building this summer.
Shea Taps Forest City, Again
Aliso Viejo’s Shea Properties is tapping another Forest City Enterprises Inc. executive to handle work on its biggest local project, overseeing about half of the 1,500-acre redevelopment of Tustin’s former Marine base.
The company just named John Tindall as its vice president of commercial development. He’ll focus on commercial development at Legacy Park, the 820-acre housing, retail and office development in Tustin that broke ground in October.
Prior to joining Shea, Tindall served as vice president of commercial development for the Denver commercial group of Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises.
Colm Macken, who took over the top spot at Shea Properties a little more than a year ago, also came from Forest City, a developer known for big mixed-use projects across the country.
Shea Properties, part of Walnut-based J.F. Shea Co., is working with sister company Shea Homes, a homebuilder, as well as with Dallas-based Centex Corp. and the city of Tustin on Legacy Park at the former base.
Buchanan Street’s Big Year
Newport Beach-based real estate investment bank Buchanan Street Partners said it worked on a record $3.8 billion in deals last year. The figure includes $1 billion in investments and $2.8 billion in financing deals it worked on.
Deal work, which Buchanan calls advisory production, rose 17.2% in 2006, the company said. Investments grew by 10.8%.
Buchanan Street expects to complete upward of $4 billion in transactions this year, the result of growth in new markets across the country.
Get your checkbooks out.
The next batch of lots for homes at The Strand at Headlands, the 121-acre Dana Point project that’s one of the last remaining untapped coastal developments, is coming up for sale later this month.
Ten beachfront sites are set to go on sale on Feb. 28, according to developer Sanford Edward of Headlands Reserve LLC.
The first 25 undeveloped lots at The Strand sold for $148 million last November, setting a number of land sale records for OC. The lots, each one-fifth of an acre, went for an average of $5.9 million apiece.
Prices for the latest round of lots up for sale are similarly priced, and are expected to range from $4.3 million to $8.5 million, according to Edward. The sites will have unobstructed ocean views, with the front row of homes sitting 25 feet above Strand Beach.
Those high prices don’t include the cost of a home on the lots. Buyers can expect to spend another $4 million or so for their custom homes, which are likely to run 7,000 to 8,000 square feet each.
A total of 118 home lots are up for sale at The Strand.
