Irvine developer SilverCreek Properties LLC is making a big bet on Wal-Mart.
SilverCreek, a buyer, developer and manager of shopping centers, has built a portfolio of about 20 centers, primarily in California.
Now SilverCreek has paid $96 million to the Klein Group of Coldwater, Mich., for 46 centers totaling about 770,000 square feet.
The centers are spread across 20 states in the West, Midwest and South. None are in the Golden State.
They range in size from 4,000 to 50,000 square feet, and are about 96% full. The deal effectively triples the size of SilverCreek’s portfolio.
More important is who the centers are next to, said Jeff Rothbard, a managing member of SilverCreek.
They all shadow Wal-Mart Supercenters.
This gives SilverCreek “a significant upside potential to maximize performance and to increase the value of the assets at market rents,” Rothbard said when announcing the deal.
Randy Crossno, a former executive at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. who joined SilverCreek as a development partner last year, is overseeing leasing and managing of the newly acquired centers out of an office in Arkansas.
Fouy Ly of Irvine’s Sperry Van Ness represented SilverCreek. Mark Strauss of Cohen Financial, based in Newport Beach, secured the loan for the buy from RBS Greenwich Capital’s Real Estate Finance Group of Los Angeles.
Buchanan, Hines
Renowned office developer Hines Interests LP of Houston has made waves locally with its goal of owning $1 billion worth of buildings in Orange County within the next three years, up from just about nothing now.
Now Hines is aiming to grab a similar amount of property in San Diego.
One potential beneficiary of Hines’ push: Newport Beach-based real estate investment bank Buchanan Street Partners.
Buchanan Street arranged an $85 million loan for Hines’ 2211 Michelson office tower project in Irvine. The 12-story, 265,000-square-foot building is being built with Fort Worth, Texas-based Crescent Real Estate Equities Co.
Buchanan Street also has an investment stake in the project.
In San Diego, Buchanan Street recently helped Hines buy a 3-acre site in La Jolla Commons, where the developer now is planning another office tower.
Buchanan Street introduced Hines to Makar Properties LLC, which owns 17 acres of land in the area and represented both parties in the transaction.
Makar Properties of Newport Beach is the developer behind the 172-acre St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort & Spa in Dana Point, built in 2001.
The La Jolla site is zoned for a 20-story, 450,000-square-foot office tower that could cost upward of $150 million to build.
Buchanan Street hopes to ensure repeat business with big names such as Hines. But nothing is set in stone as far as a partnership, said Timothy Hawthorne, a Buchanan Street executive vice president. The two companies also have worked together on a project in Seattle.
In OC, Buchanan Street is providing financing for Nexus Lake Towers, a condominium project in Santa Ana planned by Nexus Cos., which has its headquarters next to the project site.
More industrial sites in the Irvine Business Complex are being eyed for homes.
The latest property slated for an urban infill development in Irvine: the former domestic headquarters of a plastics manufacturer.
Irvine-based real estate firm Sares-Regis Group paid $8.5 million for a 2.1-acre site at 2500 Main St.
On the site is a 41,000-square-foot industrial building built in 1979. The building’s now empty.
Plastics maker Kyowa America Corp., part of Japan’s Kyowa Electric & Chemical Co., sold the building and moved to Westminster (see related item in Real Estate Deals, page 32).
Kyowa paid $7.9 million for a building at the Westminster Business Center, which was one of the largest industrial building sales in the fourth quarter.
Sares-Regis envisions apartments, condominiums or mixed-use commercial space. The company is best known for development and management of apartments and condos. It owns about 6.5 million square feet of commercial real estate valued at $500 million, and more than 2,000 homes under development.
Stephen Schloemer of Colliers International Inc.’s Irvine office, and Michael Ross, Fred Cordova and Steve Nanino of Colliers’ Los Angeles office represented Kyowa.
Elsewhere in Irvine
Down the road, California Pacific Homes bought 2.8 acres on at the corner of Trabuco and Jeffrey roads in Irvine.
Plans call for development of single-family homes as part of the city’s Woodbury subdivision.
The land sold for $6.4 million, or about $2.3 million per acre. The Irvine Company’s Irvine Community Development Co. arm sold the land.
California Pacific Homes has built elsewhere at Woodbury, the first phase of the Irvine Co.’s massive Northern Sphere development.
The homebuilder was started decades ago by Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren as The Bren Company. Son Cary Bren now runs California Pacific.
