COMMERCIAL
Irvine-based land brokerage O’Donnell/ Atkins is starting up a consulting business for the growing number of lenders that are suddenly finding themselves managing big land holdings and early-stage home and commercial projects after development plans go awry.
The company’s “asset solutions group” will provide a number of management and consulting services, including project valuation, asset management and restructuring, due diligence and transactional management, as well as entitlement work.
The group’s target customers are private equity firms, hedge funds, capital partners and other lenders that have become de facto land developers after their original development partners defaulted on loans or opted against going ahead with projects due to the tough real estate market.
“Lenders are not set up to manage these properties,” said Tom Reimers, executive vice president for O’Donnell/Atkins.
It’s not an unfamiliar line of business for the company. When O’Donnell/Atkins began operations about 16 years ago, its primary work was consulting. The real estate industry then was “just in a straight workout phase,” Reimers said.
Once the industry turned around, the company turned its attention to brokering land sales, where the company’s made its name during the past decade.
The managing director for the asset solutions group is Cindy Scanlon, who previously was the senior vice president of asset disposition for Irvine-based master developer SunCal Cos. She worked on some 100 transactions for SunCal,a long-time business partner of O’Donnell/Atkins.
Burke Buy
Costa Mesa-based developer Burke Real Estate Group has acquired Cedargrove Business Park, a 79,926-square-foot business park in Garden Grove.
Burke paid $10.2 million, or about $128 per square foot, for the park. The four-building site is on 5.3 acres at 13311 to 13341 Garden Grove Blvd., just off the Garden Grove (22) Freeway. It’s about a mile from The Block at Orange.
Mike Hefner and Paul Caputo of Voit Commercial Brokerage LP’s Anaheim office represented Cedar Grove Investments, an affiliate of Burke. The seller, Tustin-based Herd Partnership, was represented by John Gates of Central DeAnza LLC.
Burke’s development focus of late has been on office, research and development and industrial properties for sale to smaller tenants. Recent projects include Monarch Corporate Center, a four-building, 68,457-square-foot industrial development in Garden Grove that opened late last year.
The Cedargrove is set to remain for lease for the time being. Down the line, the developer could look to get the site entitled for industrial condominiums, Hefner said.
Pacific Gateway Deal
Carson-based MagTek Inc. is the latest company to buy one of the industrial buildings at Seal Beach’s Pacific Gateway Business Center.
MagTek paid $16.4 million, or about $152 per square foot, for a 108,056-square-foot building at 1710 Apollo Court. The building is one of the more recent industrial facilities built by Gardena-based Overton Moore Properties at its 830,000-square-foot development being built on former Boeing Co. land.
MagTek makes magnetic stripe card readers, check readers and scanners, and cardholder verification systems for banks and retailers.
Brian DeRevere and Bob Goodmanson of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. represented both MagTek and Overton Moore in the deal.
First Acquisition
Irvine’s Thompson Na-tional Properties LLC has its first acquisition under its belt.
The company, started earlier this year by Tony Thompson, founder of Santa Ana’s Triple Net Properties LLC, bought two Dallas buildings totaling 118,400 square feet.
Terms of the deals weren’t disclosed. Rents at the two buildings, Oakwood Tower and One Lee Park West, are 30% to 40% below market, according to the company.
Thomson National, which plans to buy distressed real estate for individual and institutional investors, also secured a $10 million credit line with Chicago’s PrivateBank.
RESIDENTIAL
Aliso Viejo’s Shea Properties is opening an apartment complex in Irvine, about a mile from its Legacy Park project in Tustin.
The developer has started leasing for the Calypso Apartments and Lofts, a 177-unit complex at the corner of Jamboree Road and Alton Parkway. The four-story apartment building was originally envisioned as a condo development.
The project’s across from the 112,000-square-foot Diamond Jamboree shopping center, which is nearing completion.
