This much is known: Maguire Properties Inc. is officially now the county’s second largest office landlord, behind The Irvine Company.
Maguire finalized one of the biggest office buys here in recent memory late last month, completing the 8 million-square-foot, $2.9 billion buy of Orange County and Los Angeles office buildings that were formerly run by Equity Office Properties Trust.
Beyond that, there are plenty of questions remaining about how the Los Angeles-based landlord’s OC portfolio will shake out in coming months.
Maguire is preparing for more office sales, while readying for additional housing development, and assessing fallout from the subprime mortgage industry’s crash.
The real estate investment trust plans to sell an additional $750 million to $775 million worth of local office properties, with some deals finalized in the next month, according to Chief Executive Robert Maguire.
The company is “in active discussions” for a number of OC sales, company officials said. Some of the sales, likely for offices in Anaheim and Orange, could be made to joint ventures that Maguire retains an ownership stake in.
Upon the completion of those sales, the landlord will end up “with the best of the best” buildings currently in its roughly 9 million-square-foot OC portfolio, Maguire said in a conference call with analysts last week.
“We may have some selective sales (but) we like the market long-term,” he said. “If we’re going to sell, we want to sell down to the buildings that are truly compatible.”
It’s still a guessing game as to who any new buyers for the $750 million worth of office buildings could be. Local sources suggest that two companies with OC ties,the Muller Co. and the Shidler Group,could be among the leading bidders.
For more on this story, see the May 7 edition of the Business Journal.
