CT Realty Buys Sacramento Building; BIA/OC Names CEO
COMMERCIAL
Vantis, the 40-acre, $350 million Class A project under construction at the Aliso Viejo Town Center, has landed its first tenant.
Seattle-based Safeco, the Fortune 500 insurance and financial company, has agreed to a 15-year lease for 120,000 square feet in the first phase of Walnut-based Shea Properties’ project. Financial terms of the lease were not released.
Safeco will occupy space in the first Vantis building, a 175,000-square-foot, five-story structure slated for completion in the first quarter of 2003.
Tim Joyce, Kathe Morgan and Oliver Fleener of the Irvine office of Colliers Seeley represented Shea in the lease. Safeco was represented by Dennis Richardson of the west Los Angeles office of Cushman & Wakefield and Rick Kaplan of the Irvine office of Cushman & Wakefield.
“Safeco was attracted to the Vantis site because it will allow them to expand with their regional growth,” said Richardson.
The entire Vantis project will total 1.5 million square feet of office space and 30,000 square feet of retail space after a seven-phase build-out that is planned to be completed by 2007.
Local M & M; Office Dealing
Encino-based Marcus & Millichap brokered deals of three business plazas, totaling $13.35 million and 115,584 square feet.
In the first deal, Fremont Investment & Loan sold the Rayton Plaza to the Wu Family Trust. Fremont had owned the West Covina property since 1995. Gregory Brown and Edward Hanley of Marcus & Millichap’s Newport Beach office represented the buyer in the deal.
In the second transaction, Wu Family Trust sold Meridian Plaza to the Capra Family Trust for $4.85 million. Brown and Hanley represented the seller in the sale of the 28,450-square-foot building located in Cypress.
In the final deal, NBS Realty sold the 45,568-square-foot Via Verde Plaza to Morris Ventures LLC for $5.25 million. Brown and Hanley represented the seller in the deal.
CT Buys Again in Sacramento
Newport Beach-based CT Realty Corp. added to its Northern California portfolio with the purchase of the 85,742-square-foot Lincoln Village Park near Sacramento.
CT Realty acquired the property for $5.4 million from Howard Brumer, a private New York investor.
The corporate park is CT’s third acquisition in the Sacramento area. Lincoln Village Park totals six interconnected office buildings on a 6-acre campus and is 88% leased. Major tenants include the county of Sacramento, Western Electrical Contractors Association and Airborne Freight.
According to John Valentine, senior vice president of CT Realty, the company plans to invest $400,000 in capital improvements. The property is in a strong submarket of Sacramento, Valentine added.
“We were also attracted to the project because it serves as a sister property to our Regents Office Park in nearby Gold River,” Valentine said.
Regents Park is a 133,000-square-foot office park 10 minutes from Lincoln Village Park.
Bill Bouldin of Sacramento-based Bouldin & English Inc. and Greg Mayer of Brown, Stevens, Elmore & Sparre, also of Sacramento, represented both parties in the deal.
C & W; Consolidates Offices
Cushman & Wakefield consolidated its two South Bay offices into a single 12,100-square-foot office at the Kilroy Airport Center in Long Beach. The move to bigger digs was needed after Cushman’s acquisition of Long Beach-based Matlow Kennedy Commercial Real Estate in January.
RESIDENTIAL
After a nationwide search, Irvine-based the Building Industry Association of Southern California, Orange County Chapter named its acting chief executive, Lynne Fishel, to fill the position on a permanent basis.
After joining the BIA/OC staff in 1996 as deputy director, Fishel succeeded Christine Diemer Iger on an interim basis in August.
From there, the BIA/OC conducted more than 20 interviews before deciding Fishel was the right person for the job, according to Steve Cameron, president of Fieldstone Communities Inc. and BIA/OC’s 2001 president.
Fishel brings 18 years of experience in government and public policy. Prior to her time at BIA/OC, Fishel spent time at the public affairs division of Southern California Edison and 13 years in various capacities within the Orange County government system.
Ambling Building Dorms
Anaheim-based Ambling Companies Inc. has broken ground on a 336-bed, $15.3 million student housing project on the campus of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.
The project includes six three-story apartment buildings and a recreation area. The 84 suite-style units are 1,224 square feet, each with four bedrooms, two baths and a kitchen.
The student housing is scheduled to open by summer 2002.
