AIG Eyes South Coast Metro Space; Homebuilders Go Online for Subs
COMMERCIAL
In Mission Viejo, the renovated and renamed The Shops at Mission Viejo mall continues to have a positive effect on surrounding real estate.
Mission Heritage, a four-story office building at 27401 Los Alton, near what was known previously as the Mission Viejo Mall, was purchased by San Francisco-based McMorgan & Co. for $11.9 million, or $168 per square foot, one of the highest per-square-foot prices ever in Mission Viejo.
The 70,834-square-foot building was sold by Los Angeles-based Edwards Properties.
The Mission Heritage sale follows that of the Hillpointe Apartment Complex, also near The Shops at Mission Viejo. The 400-unit complex drew strong bids from a wide variety of buyers and ultimately sold for $21.3 million to the Bascom Group LLC. As with Mission Heritage, brokers said Hillpointe Apartments’ location near The Shops made it a highly attractive property.
George Economos, an NAI/Capital Commercial broker on the Mission Heritage deal, said potential landlords are attracted by the existing mall and its expansion plans.
“The mall helped the office building,” he said. “The mall has all this revenue coming in and Macy’s still has to expand and the entire food court and restaurants are still under construction,” Economos said.
Further helping real estate in the area is the development of the nearby masterplanned communities of Ladera and Talega, which Economos sees as providing an ample supply of customers to the mall and surrounding businesses.
Economos and his son, Steve, represented both parties in the Mission Heritage sale.
AIG Talking With Nexus
Nexus Development Co. is in negotiations with AIG Insurance on a deal for 70,000 square feet of space at the developer’s Twin Towers office project in South Coast Metro, according to a source familiar with the talks. If finalized, AIG will bring pre-leasing at the pair of nine-story buildings to more than 50%. Currently, the 410,000-square-foot development is 32% pre-leased.
Recently, Nexus Development had steel delivered to the site across from Hutton Centre in the South Coast Metro area of Santa Ana. The towers, whose address will be One and Two MacArthur Place, will feature 22,000-square-foot floorplates, with subterranean parking with direct elevator access and state-of-the-art fiber optics.
Unisource Leases in La Palma
Unisource Worldwide Inc. has paid $17.25 million for a 420,000-square-foot industrial building in La Palma. The Norcross, Ga.-based distributor of paper products purchased the facility from G.I.P.-CA LLC of Solon, Ohio. Unisource will consolidate three Southern California facilities into its new distribution center. Steve Sprenger and Rick Hill of Grubb & Ellis’ Anaheim office and David O’Neill of Colliers Cleveland represented the seller. Laird Perkins of CB Richard Ellis’ South Bay office and Jeff Morgan of the firm’s Newport Beach office represented Unisource.
Dot-Com Deal
E-DN.com, a business-to-business e-commerce company, has signed a five-year, $1.7 million lease for 19,217 square feet of space at 26800 Laguna Hills Drive in Aliso Viejo. The company, which is relocating its corporate headquarters from Mission Viejo, is scheduled to move into the building this month. Doug Mathews and Gary Allen of Grubb & Ellis’ Newport Beach office represented the landlord, Shea Properties, while CRESA Partners represented E-DN.com.
RESIDENTIAL
Going beyond simply fishing for homebuyers on the Internet, Orange County homebuilders John Laing Homes and Warmington Homes are using the Web to assign jobs and find the lowest-priced subcontractors to build their homes.
The two homebuilders used TheJobSite.com,which bills itself as an electronic marketplace, an application service provider and a portal for homebuilders and their subs,to invite subcontractors to bid on various facets of their construction program. The verdict, according to both homebuilders, is encouraging.
“The support and training that TheJobSite.com personnel has given our staff and that of the trade contractors during the transaction was outstanding,” said Larry Webb, CEO of John Laing Homes.
Subcontractors were equally happy with the portal’s functionality and opportunities it presents them.
“TheJobSite.com was easy to use and could potentially save us several hours each time we submit a bid,” said Clay Smith, owner of Royalty Cabinets, which successfully bid on the Warmington Homes job.
Publisher Wins Suit
A federal judge has ruled in favor of Irvine-based Entrepreneur Publishing in its trademark-infringement suit against Sacramento-based EntrepreneurPR. The ruling found that EntrepreneurPR, its quarterly publication, Entrepreneur Illustrated and its Web site, EntrepreneurPR.com conflicted with the trademark of the OC firm, which publishes Entrepreneur magazine and operates the Entrepreneur.com Web site.
