Orange County’s newest office tower is going on the block.
Phoenix-based Opus West Corp. plans to begin marketing its 12-story Opus Center Irvine building at The Irvine Concourse, according to sources. The real estate development company is in the final stages of talks with Eastdil Realty, a brokerage firm that would offer the building to prospective buyers. A marketing package on the building at 2020 Main St. should go out to potential investors soon, sources said.
Paul Marshall, senior vice president of real estate development for Opus West, declined to confirm or deny that the 260,000-square-foot tower will be put up for sale. “We really don’t go into any development with a predetermined (exit) strategy, as evidenced by the fact that we keep some product,” he said. “Sometimes, however, we sell to (investment) funds we manage and sometimes we sell to the third-party market.”
Opus West’s decision to sell the building, completed last year, did not shock many people. Unlike most development companies, Opus West provides its own equity in many deals, and the company has not been known as a long-term holder of real estate. Opus West regularly sells its properties to fund new development opportunities, real estate observers pointed out.
“Opus rarely keeps anything,” said George Economos, an office broker with NAI/Capital Commercial. “Their M.O. is to build and sell and buy more land. That’s usually what Opus does.”
That strategy certainly would fit in with Opus West’s plans for the Irvine Concourse, which call for a total of three high-rise buildings at the masterplanned office park at the corner of MacArthur Boulevard and Main Street. When completed, Opus West will have added more than 930,000 square feet to the development.
Opus West also has developed four low-rise office buildings totaling more than 425,000 square feet, three of which have been sold. Opus West has already agreed to sell the fourth, set for completion next month, to Black & Decker Corp.
When construction of Opus Center Irvine was launched, it marked the first time in more than a decade someone had undertaken development of a high-rise structure locally. The gleaming blue-glass structure is 75% leased. Tenants include PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC, New York Life Insurance Co., Miller Brewing Co., Harvey and Co., Gage Marketing, Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin, Gillette and Hillman Properties.
Opus West is in talks with enough prospective tenants that it expects to have the tower completely leased shortly, sources said. Asking lease rates are about $2.70 per square foot.
Broker Economos expects the building to sell for more than $280 a square foot. It could even top the $300-a-foot mark, he said, making it one of the most expensive local buys in more than a decade. “This will be one of the premier sales in this area, no question about it,” he said.
Among the likely suitors for the property will be pension funds, as the building is viewed as fairly stable property.
“This will be a conservative investor because it’s very successful and it’s close to being near full,” Economos said. n
