COMMERCIAL
Irvine-based Nationwide Support Services Inc. has seen its consumer-focused debt management business boom during the mortgage meltdown that’s crippled many of the area’s biggest lenders.
Now the company’s moving into the mortgage industry’s space,literally. Nationwide is the first big sublease announced at the Irvine headquarters of Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc.
Nationwide signed a five-year sublease for 28,419 square feet, taking the third floor of Impac’s seven-story building at 19500 Jamboree Road. The company moved into the furnished offices earlier this month.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Monthly asking rents for the space are listed at $2.75 per square foot, according to CoStar Group Inc.
The new offices represent a tripling in space for Nationwide, according to Chief Executive Joanne Garneau. The company’s 75 employees had been a few blocks down the street, at 4425 Jamboree Road.
“We were overflowing at the old space,” Garneau said.
The new offices should allow room for twice as many workers, in expectation of a lot more business. Garneau says the company is projecting a tripling in business during the next 18 months.
Nationwide provides back-end services, such as processing work and new client enrollments, to businesses in the debt settlement industry. It is affiliated with,but doesn’t own,more than 50 nationwide offices that help consumers get out of debt and avoid bankruptcy.
“Consumers are stressed right now, and they don’t have many options. Our goal is to give them some breathing room,” she said.
A typical consumer can see their credit card bills cut by 30% to 35% using a debt settlement company, which negotiates on behalf of the consumer with creditors.
Nationwide’s been in business since 2001. Garneau bought the business in 2005.
Nationwide was represented in the sublease by Cory Napora of Irvine-based Realty Benefit Inc. Dave Kinney and Mike Salmon from Irvine-based Madison Street Partners represented Impac.
The mortgage and investment company, which has downsized operations substantially in the past year, put its headquarters at its namesake Impac Center up for sublease late last year.
The real estate investment trust moved into its 200,000-square-foot building in 2006, consolidating operations from other Orange County sites. Impac pays close to $7 million in rent at Impac Center annually. Its lease runs through 2016. It’s nearing a few more subleases at the building, according to Madison Street’s Kinney.
Schnioda Growth
Schnioda Design Center Inc., a Santa Ana-based wholesale distributor of floral supplies and decorations, has a new home.
The company signed a 10-year lease for 135,731 square feet of warehouse space at 601 W. Dyer Road in Santa Ana. It’ll be the largest tenant at the 183,571-square-foot industrial property, which was bought late last year by an affiliate of Los Angeles-based Crown Associates Realty Inc.
The lease is valued at $13.5 million, or about 83 cents per month.
Schnioda is moving from a 60,000-square-foot building at 1421 S. Village Way. The family-owned company, which has served florists for more than 10 years, also has a 40,000-square-foot building in San Diego. Its warehouse counts more than 20,000 floral supply and related decorative items, according to the company’s Web site.
Crown Associates finished up an extensive renovation of the property started by the warehouse’s former owner, an affiliate of Los Angeles-based Rexford Industrial LLC, which paid $13.1 million for the building in early 2006.
“It’s the best remodel” of a large, OC-area industrial property, according to Voit Commercial Brokerage LP’s Kevin Turner, who, along with Mike Hartel, represented the landlord in the lease deal. There were multiple parties vying for the space, according to Turner.
KDOC Sale
Anaheim-based TV station KDOC-TV sold its studio in Irvine.
The station’s owner, Ellis Communications Inc., sold the 22,021-square-foot building to an affiliate of Santa Ana-based homebuilder and developer Far West Industries. The two-story property sold for $3 million, or about $136 per square foot.
The site includes a TV station tower and satellite dishes. Far West plans to occupy the building after remodeling it.
KDOC-TV primarily broadcasts reruns of shows such as “Cheers,” “Magnum, P.I.” and “Happy Days.” It has operated from this facility since 1994, but is moving to a new studio in Santa Ana.
David Bolt and Chris Bates from the Newport Beach office of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. represented Ellis Communications in the sale.
