COMMERCIAL
In November, I wrote a page 1 story on Boeing Co.’s pending sale of land in Anaheim to Panattoni Development Co.
Now that the deal’s done, a few more details have been disclosed for the transaction, which ended up being for 61 acres of Boeing’s sprawling 101-acre site, and not the entire campus as had been expected.
While Panattoni has the option to buy the remaining acres, the Orange County Water District might want it for a recharge basin. It is studying the entire site for possible eminent domain seizure.
Among new details is the disclosure of another financial partner in the deal, along with the Irvine office of Sacramento-based Panattoni. ING Clarion Partners LLC, part of the Netherlands’ ING Groep NV with its U.S. headquarters in New York, paired up with Panattoni.
The buyers plan to invest more than $350 million in the property. They say the site will be redeveloped as a multiuse business park with low-rise office, research and development, industrial and retail.
There are 14 buildings on the site now, totaling about 1.5 million square feet.
Plans call for about 450,000 square feet of office to be retained and upgraded, with the rest set to be demolished. About 1.2 million square feet of environmentally friendly buildings are planned for sale and lease.
Boeing was represented by the Newport Beach and Anaheim offices of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. in the sale to Panattoni.
Cushman Moving
The Irvine office of Cushman & Wakefield is moving its office,but not too far.
The brokerage just signed a deal for 10,000 square feet of space at 2020 Main St., part of the Opus Center Irvine complex near John Wayne Airport. The building was sold to Prudential Financial Inc.’s real estate arm in 2001.
Cushman, which counts about 30 brokers and 82 employees overall, had been a few buildings over, at 1920 Main St.
You can count Cushman, No. 9 on last year’s Business Journal list of largest local brokerages, among those finding good sublease deals during the current office market.
The 31-month deal is a sublease of space previously used by law firm Howrey LLP.
There’s about 3 million square feet
of office space available for sublease in Orange County.
Howrey struck a deal about a year ago to move to 4 Park Plaza at The Irvine Company’s Jamboree Center campus, where it leases 34,000 square feet.
The securities litigation firm is taking space previously leased by another law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, which in turn moved to Maguire Properties Inc.’s new 3161 Michelson tower.
For Cushman, the new location “gives us a little room to grow,” said Eric Hinkelman, senior managing director for the Irvine office.
The extra space also allows the brokerage to move a small office Cushman had in Huntington Beach into the Irvine office, he said.
Hinkleman says 2008 is shaping up to be a steadier year than last.
“Locally, December was an active month, and January’s been promising,” he said.
The brokerage’s Irvine office is set to be active with leasing work on big projects such as Shea Properties’ commercial development at Tustin Legacy. Cushman is handling office leasing for Legacy Park, part of the 1,580-acre redevelopment of the former Marine helicopter base.
The first batch of the commercial development planned for the site, totaling 340,000 square feet, is set to break ground this year along Red Hill and Warner avenues.
RESIDENTIAL
Orange County’s apartment market is ranked No. 8 in the country for investors this year by Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services.
That’s a drop of six spots from last year, and is largely a result of slowing job growth and continued fallouts from the subprime mortgage implosion, Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services said in its new report.
Of the more than 40 markets it covers, only Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee are expected to have levels of lower job growth than OC.
The report says effective rents should rise 5.3% this year, to an average of $1,574 per month. Vacancy rates should run about 3.5%.
OC apartments now trade at a median price of $169 per square foot, at capitalization rates in the low- to mid-5% range, the
report said.
