Botox rival maker Evolus Inc. has moved its headquarters from Irvine to one of Newport Beach’s most exclusive office towers—and it appears to be getting a deal to do so.
The company recently inked a deal to take space on the 12th floor of the 520 Newport Center Drive building, the 21-story tower near Fashion Island shopping center that opened in 2015, and has held the likes of Bill Gross, Stifel Financial Corp., Nicolaus & Co. and other finance firms as tenants.
One tenant not there anymore is retrenching patent licenser Acacia Research Corp. (Nasdaq: ACTG), which put its office up for sublease late last year.
Acacia’s loss is Evolus’ gain. Acacia is subleasing the 17,600-square-foot 12th floor to Evolus for $65,000 per month, or about $3.70 per square foot, according to regulatory filings.
That’s less than half of what some other tenants at the building are paying.
Tenants taking some of the top floors at the tower are paying monthly rents in the $8-per-square-foot range, among the highest prices seen in Orange County for office space, according to prior Business Journal news reports.
The lower floors at the tower have monthly rents as high as $5.50 per square foot, according to the website of the building’s owner, Newport Beach-based Irvine Co.
It’s not a long-term arrangement. The sublease only runs until early 2020 and Evolus “has no option to renew or extend the sublease under its terms,” regulatory filings note.
Evolus’ opportunity came about after Acacia announced late last year a board shakeup and change in corporate strategy, which included selling nearly a quarter of its stake in the volatilely traded Veritone Inc. in Costa Mesa.
Acacia’s revenue fell 63% to $13.7 million during the third quarter. To manage costs, Acacia said it would sublease its office and its 11 employees would move “to more appropriate offices,” company officials disclosed at the time.
Acacia shares have been hovering around $3 this month with a market cap of about $150 million.
Previously headquartered in a building along Von Karman Avenue near John Wayne Airport, Evolus recently received FDA approval for its lead product, Jeuveau, an injection that competes against Allergan PLC’s Botox.
It was profiled in the Feb. 11 edition of the Business Journal.
Evolus plans to launch Jeuveau this spring at a discount of 20% to 25% to Botox.
Shares jumped more than 80% since the Feb. 1 announcement. Evolus has a market cap of about $760 million.
Orange Investment
Newport Beach-based Alere Property Group LLC has purchased a three-building industrial business park in Orange for $22 million.
A private Los Angeles family trust, Horwin Noip LLC, sold the 138,970-square-foot property at 1481-1497 N. Main St. to Alere for nearly $158 per square foot, in an all-cash deal. The site is currently 100% occupied; it’s located about a mile east of the Honda Center.
Mike Cargile and Loren Cargile, executives at Voit Real Estate Services, brokered the sale.
Both brokers noted that Alere is looking to buy additional industrial properties in Orange County and Los Angeles.
The firm said that dwindling industrial supply in Orange County will continue to bolster demand and rental rates. The OC industrial market has one of the lowest rates in the nation—just 2.7%—according to a year-end Voit market report.
Alere, which has a portfolio valued at about $2.7 billion, is planning a renovation of the property.
It has 15 Orange County properties in its portfolio, the bulk of which are in Santa Ana.
Phoenix Rising
Costa Mesa-based Crown Realty & Development has bought nearly 100 acres in North Phoenix’s Desert Ridge master planned community, and aims to turn it into a mix of homes, hotels, offices and retail space.
It paid $54 million for the land in Desert Ridge’s core, called City North, which has been the subject of active litigation and bankruptcy for a decade.
A prior bankruptcy court-ordered appraisal had valued the land at $121 million.
Plans include “a residential core, office buildings from four to 10 stories, vibrant new restaurants, a full-service hotel and several select service hotels,” according to Rick Carpinelli, senior vice president of acquisition and development at Crown, which has built other residential and hospitality projects in the Scottsdale area over the years.
The land it bought is zoned for about 2,500 homes and apartments, 2 million square feet of office, 500 hotel rooms and 100,000 square feet of retail.
Crown said it plans to begin some early-stage construction this spring, with some ground-up development taking place latter in the year.
