A pair of recently sold properties along Imperial Highway in Brea, which traded for a cumulative $56 million, are expected to result in new industrial projects totaling some 245,000 square feet.
The deals add to a growing pipeline of new warehouse and distribution space planned for the area.
In the larger of the two sales, the local office of industrial developer and investor Duke Realty Corp. (NYSE: DRE) paid $35.4 million for 2727 E. Imperial Hwy., an office now leased to Raytheon that runs about 105,000 square feet. It is next to the headquarters of clothing manufacturer AST Sportswear.
The deal adds to Duke’s industrial pipeline in the area. The REIT, valued around $23 billion, is also developing a distribution hub for Amazon in Cypress, at the former home of Mitsubishi Motors.
Healthcare Property Advisors was the seller of the site, which is expected to see the offices demolished to make way for a 117,920-square-foot warehouse, according to city records.
The building is about 3 miles east of 711 W. Imperial, a land site near the area operations of Mercury Insurance that also just sold, for $20.8 million to Transwestern Development Co.Â
City records indicate a nearly 127,000-square-foot industrial facility is planned for the site, which was sold by Dwight Manley and Tony Fanticola, two of Brea’s largest property owners. The duo has other holdings in the immediate area.
Amazon Plans Nearby
The two Brea deals come on the heels of the largest commercial real estate sale in the city this year, Amazon’s $165 million buy of Bank of America’s campus in the city. That site is over 30 acres on a spot about a block north of Imperial Highway, along Valencia Avenue.
That sale closed in October; the Business Journal was first to report on the deal, which is expected to see Amazon ultimately build a distribution center. Specific plans for the development haven’t been disclosed yet; it is the priciest real estate buy in Orange County for Amazon to date.Â
