COMMERCIAL
It’s a developer’s dream: 5,000 acres of flat coastal land.
But right now, no one can say for sure what’s going to happen to the Naval Weapons Station in Seal Beach.
In May, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is set to reveal which bases he wants to close nationwide. In theory, he’s considering every base in the country as a possible target.
After a story on the base closure process ran in the Jan. 24 issue of the Business Journal, I got a call from Seal Beach base spokesman Gregg Smith. The story speculated that Seal Beach appeared more vulnerable than Orange County’s other active base, the Joint Forces Training Base at Los Alamitos.
I told Smith I live near the Seal Beach base and rarely see activity there. He said I need to drive down Pacific Coast Highway more often.
Smith said Seal Beach services between 70 to 80 Navy warships each year. It’s the only spot in the Golden State where ships load weapons, and the only place that regularly services ships stationed in San Diego.
“You don’t want to put your weapons storage right next to where you base your ships,” Smith said.
In San Diego, submarines load weapons, but not ships. The Naval Weapons Station in Concord was scaled back during the last round of base closures, he said.
“The Navy hasn’t loaded a single ship there since 1999,” Smith said of the Concord base.
He said the Navy loads weapons at Indian Island in Washington State, about 50 miles from the Canadian border.
Out of curiosity, and since I live near the corner of Bolsa Chica Street and Edinger Avenue, I asked him if there was any nuclear material or weapons at the base. He said the Navy has a long-standing policy of not confirming or denying existence of nuclear stuff.
Smith said under a law signed by the first President Bush the Navy does not load or unload nuclear weapons at the base.
Solid Start
G. Ryan Smith snagged a prime listing just a few months after being tapped by Newport Beach-based Buchanan Street Partners to start an investment sales unit in Southern California.
Smith is marketing Lakehills Corporate Park, a 233,000-square-foot, class A office campus in Laguna Hills. His clients are Santa Barbara-based investor Pacifica Real Estate Group and New York-based financial adviser Investcorp International Inc., a unit of Bahrain’s Investcorp SA.
The campus includes six buildings and is 88% full.
Smith previously headed sales in OC for Los Angeles-based Secured Capital LLC. Before that, he spent about a decade with the Los Angeles unit of New York’s Cushman & Wakefield Inc.
Buchanan also hired Richard Leider to run a sales division in San Francisco.
The company acts as a financial adviser of sorts, connecting lenders with developers or investors, and has other business lines. Last year Buchanan provided about $1 billion in financing.
Developer’s Dream
Costa Mesa-based Guthrie Development Co. bought five industrial sites during the past two months.
Guthrie plans to build 400,000 square feet of industrial buildings.
Rob Guthrie, who heads the company, said he builds and sells small buildings, but also is looking to do more buildings from 20,000 to 50,000 square feet. Commercial buildings 10,000 square feet or less have been popular among developers for the past few years.
Guthrie plans to develop more buildings for lease.
The reason: higher interest rates. Guthrie said he expects rates to rise a point or two this year.
“I think that will be enough to slow down the velocity of these buildings for sale,” he said.
Of his recent deals, three were in OC:
In Brea, Guthrie acquired a 5-acre site and plans to build an 87,043-square-foot business park, dubbed Mariner Business Center. The park is expected to have 13 buildings from 5,330 square feet to 10,960 square feet.
The site is on Mariners Street near the intersection of Imperial Highway and Puente Street. Two buildings already have been sold. Construction is set to be finished by August.
Meanwhile, Guthrie bought a 121,600-square-foot industrial building at 2152 Alton Parkway in Irvine for $10.9 million. Guthrie plans to divide the property into small industrial units from 8,000 square feet to 24,000 square feet in size.
And in Garden Grove, Guthrie acquired a 45,656-square-foot office building and some land for $5.4 million. In an unusual twist, Guthrie plans to turn it into industrial space. He’s set to divide the building into two units, one 19,000 square feet and the other 28,000 square feet.
He also plans two new buildings on what is now a parking lot. The 5-acre site is at 7465 Lampson Ave. Some units are marked for lease and others for sale.
