RESIDENTIAL
Irvine’s Shopoff Properties Trust Inc., a new real estate investment trust that’s looking to buy raw land for housing developments, is starting to make some deals.
Last month the company,which is affiliated with long-time local real estate investor Shopoff Group LP,completed its first land acquisition and nearly completed another sale that’s been in the works for a few months, for a total of about $7 million.
The first deal took place in Southwest Riverside County,north of Temecula and east of Menifee. The land is in a development known as Winchester Hills, where 5,600 homes are planned. Shopoff bought land that includes 244 rough graded housing lots totaling 7,200 square feet each and another plot of land that’s set to hold 225 condominiums.
The project was purchased from Michigan’s Pulte Homes Inc. The price was originally set at $2.5 million in late December, but was reduced to $2 million by the time the deal closed last month.
Shopoff said in regulatory filings that it has no intentions to develop the project or make any improvements to the land it bought. Instead, the company plans to hold the land until market conditions improve before selling it.
Pulte Homes has the first shot at repurchasing the land, the company said.
In the second transaction, Shopoff is expected to close on a $4.9 million deal in Lake Elsinore this month. The sale for 163 home lots has been in the works since last fall; another affiliate of the Shopoff Group currently owns the land.
Shopoff Properties Trust hopes to raise as much as $200 million from investors. The fund became effective late last year after a minimum amount of $17 million was raised. The company’s goal is to buy $75 million to $100 million of undeveloped land during the next year or so, according to Chief Executive William Shopoff.
COMMERCIAL
Julius the monkey has a smaller home.
Apparel maker Paul Frank Industries Inc., whose monkey and other cartoon characters adorn clothes, watches, bedding and other items, signed a five-year lease for 6,304 square feet of office space at 270 E. Baker St. in Costa Mesa.
As of January the office became Paul Frank’s new headquarters, according to officials with Costa Mesa-based Burke Real Estate Group, which owns the property.
It’s a step down in size for Paul Frank, which has cut back on staff the past few years as it has moved away from making its own clothes to licensing its designs.
Since 2002, it had been headquartered in a 55,000-square-foot building elsewhere in Costa Mesa.
At the same East Baker office complex, Burke also recently leased a 5,199-square-foot office unit to American Career College for three years.
Antique Building
A freeway-facing showroom in Santa Ana that’s been the home of Steven-Thomas Antiques & Interiors for more than 20 years is on the market.
Steven-Thomas Antiques has long occupied a 17,668-square-foot building at 800 E. Dyer Road, which faces the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway.
The company’s owners are retiring, and the building’s set to be available next month, according to brokers from Transtar Commercial Real Estate Services.
The space is being offered at monthly rents of $1 per square foot for the first year, and $1.20 per square foot after that, according to Transtar.
Duke Closes Shop
Indianapolis-based Duke Realty Corp., one of the country’s larger office, industrial and retail developers and property owners, opened up a Newport Beach office in early 2007. The company’s plan was to focus on industrial and distribution opportunities in Southern California.
The foray into SoCal was short-lived. Duke officials announced in late January the company was closing the Newport Beach office, along with three other recently opened offices in Austin, Seattle and San Antonio.
Duke also said it was exiting the retail and national build-to-suit development businesses and would be trimming staff back nearly 20% from its early 2008 levels.
The company said it could return to Newport Beach and the other closed offices once the economy improves.
