New York-based Emmes Group of Cos. has been selected to buy the Main Plaza office buildings near John Wayne Airport in what looks to be the first big local office transaction of the year, real estate sources tell the Business Journal.
The combined price for the two 12-story towers is expected to top $200 million, based on deals for other similar-quality buildings in the area recently, the same sources tell the Business Journal.
The mahogany colored buildings—at 1920 and 2010 Main St.—are currently owned by San Francisco-based Shorenstein Properties LLC. They total 656,000 square feet.
Shorenstein paid a reported $211 million for the buildings in 2008.
They were listed for sale last year by Eastdil Secured.
A timeframe for the completion of sale, which was first reported last week by trade publication Real Estate Alert, hasn’t been disclosed.
Emmes is projected to put “a substantial amount” of money into the property following the sale, according to sources.
The offices are part of the 48-acre Irvine Concourse development, a 10-building campus that also has a pair of hotels and an Equinox Sports Club.
Large tenants at the two buildings include healthcare real estate investor HCP Inc., which has its headquarters at the site, as well as advertising firm Wunderman L.A. and lender Greenlight Financial.
The two buildings are about 75% leased on a combined basis, according to CoStar Group Inc. records.
A deal would mark a return to Orange County for privately held Emmes in terms of office ownership.
It previously owned two other airport-area office properties, the 3161 Michelson office tower and the two-building 4000 MacArthur complex. Both those buildings were bought by Emmes at discounted prices following the last downturn, and then sold for healthy profits a few years later.
The Main Plaza offices are the only local buildings in Shorenstein’s portfolio, according to the company’s marketing material.
The last office campus in OC to trade hands for more than $200 million was the five-building Google Center along Jamboree Road, which sold last November for a reported $255 million.
An eight-story office across the street from the Irvine Concourse campus—the building at 1901 Main St.—sold for $66 million, or $382 per square foot, last May.
Estimates of the Main Plaza sale indicate a per-square-foot price around $310.
The 173,000-square-foot 1901 Main building was fully leased at the time of its sale to J&R Group LLC, an Irvine-based real estate investor, which is one reason for the discrepancy in price, those sources said.
