Trammell’s OC Unit Sells Apartments
REAL ESTATE
by Daniel D. Williams
RESIDENTIAL
The Costa Mesa office of Trammell Crow Residential has sold two luxury apartment complexes for $126.8 million.
Trammell Crow sold the Alexan Parc Rose apartments in Oxnard and the Alexan CityPlace in Pasadena to Cupertino-based Sobrato Development Cos., one of Silicon Valley’s larger commercial developers and real estate owners.
“Rental luxury units, like those at Alexan Parc Rose and Alexan City-Place, are unique to Southern California and fill demand for rental units with the amenities and comforts of a home,” said Kevin Andrade, division partner of Trammell Crow Residential, part of Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co.
“The transactions between Trammell Crow Residential and Sobrato Development are near the record prices paid per square foot for non-beachfront rental units in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties,underlining the strength of the housing market in Southern California.”
The deals were Sobrato’s first buys in Southern California, though the company owns and operates more than 120 commercial buildings and 3,600 residential units in the Bay area. The 20-acre Alexan Parc Rose, built last year, counts 373 units. Alexan CityPlace, completed in August, has 214 units.
2001 Housing Sales Up
Despite a September slump, the Southern California housing market finished ahead in 2001.
MarketPoint Realty Advisors, a San Diego-based real estate research and consulting firm, found that housing numbers were up 3% in 2001 from 2000, and up 18% from 1999.
The Southern California Housing market saw 43,306 homes sold last year, despite economic woes and the aftermath of Sept. 11.
“Housing remained relatively strong even after other elements of the economy showed signs of weakening,” said Russ Valone, MarketPoint’s president. “The sluggish fourth quarter sales were due as much to seasonal factors than to a recession,”
The report also found that the largest homebuilders continue to dominate. The top 25 homebuilders accounted for nearly 65% of the homes with sales of 28,300 units.
Los Angeles-based KB Homes led the way with 2,876 homes sold, resulting in a 6.6% market share.
Speaking of Housing
The national housing market could help resuscitate the economy, according to a report released by White House economic adviser Todd Buchholz. In fact, the housing market will drive the economy for the next 10 years.
“Housing demographics should be more favorable in the decade ahead, especially as baby boomers, minorities and recent immigrants push up their ownership rates,” Buchholz said in a report commissioned by the Washington, D.C.-based Homeownership Alliance. “The national homeownership rate could, for the first time, surpass 70% by 2010. Those forecasters in the late 1980s, who predicted a rather long-lasting downturn in the housing market, did not foresee how minority families would burst onto the home-buying scene.”
Housing, which has remained relatively strong nationally during the recession, stands to play a key part in an economic turnaround.
“This study shows that housing has been the bulwark of the economy and can drive further expansion for the foreseeable future,” said Rick Davis, president of the Homeownership Alliance, which promotes homeownership.
COMMERCIAL
Irvine-based Lee & Associates Comm-ercial Real Estate Services has released its South Orange County office report for January, and the numbers reflect an all too familiar theme: the office market is struggling.
All the key indicators suffered for the month. Vacancy rates climbed from 17.3% in December to 17.6%.
Vacancy rates are highest in Aliso Viejo, with 30.7% of office space sitting empty. Foothill Ranch is next with a vacancy rate of 27.9%. Neither area has any new office space being built.
Of the 10 areas included in the report, the only ones with office space being built are the Irvine Spectrum (59,100 square feet), Lake Forest (72,255 square feet) and San Clemente (88,580 square feet).
Net absorption also dipped. After posting a positive net absorption of 110,299 square feet in December, January saw negative net absorption of 89,652 square feet. Aliso Viejo had negative net absorption of 88,853 square feet, while the Irvine Spectrum posted a positive net absorption of 99,010 square feet.
Average asking lease rates also dropped in January from $2.26 to $2.25 per square foot. Bits and Pieces:
Walnut-based J.F. Shea Co. named Bert Selva chief executive of Shea Homes, replacing Roy Humphries. After stints with the Colorado division of KB Homes and the Orange County office of Signature Homes, Selva joined Shea homes in 1996, serving as the president of the company’s Colorado homebuilding division. Selva, a graduate of the University of Southern California with a master’s in business from the University of California, Los Angeles, plans to relocate to OC from Colorado The Newport Beach office of St. Louis-based McCarthy Building Cos. has landed a $12.9 million contract for construction and improvements from the Palm Springs Unified School District. The project will span three to four phases and calls for expanding the number of students at Desert Hot Springs High School from 850 to 2,100 Irvine-based Sublease.com, an on-line listing service for commercial and industrial sublease space, is publishing a bi-weekly newsletter, “In Your Space.” The publication is set to offer profiles of companies and tips on the local sublease market, which grew substantially in 2001.
