The top two executives at Corona-based energy drink company Monster Beverage Corp. have added another office near John Wayne Airport to their growing list of local commercial real estate investments.
Monster Beverage’s Rodney Sacks and Hilton Schlosberg, both among Orange County’s wealthiest residents, were part of an investment group that purchased 18301 Von Karman Ave. late last month, an 11-story office in Irvine, real estate sources told the Business Journal.
It’s one of four buildings at the Von Karman Towers office complex at the intersection of Von Karman and Michelson Drive and about three blocks from the airport.
The office, at over 230,600 square feet, holds the headquarters of food supplier Golden State Foods Corp. and other tenants. It’s about 90% leased, according to property marketing materials.
The office traded hands at close to $380 per square foot, or about $87.4 million, according to real estate sources familiar with the deal.
It was listed for sale last year by Jeff Cole, Ed Hernandez and Nico Napolitano, brokers with the Irvine office of Cushman & Wakefield Inc.
The property was previously owned by a venture between Bloomfield, Conn.-based healthcare insurance company Cigna Corp. and Irvine-based real estate investor and developer Greenlaw Partners, which paid $67.9 million for it in 2014, according to CoStar Group Inc. records.
Greenlaw, whose offices are in the building, remains a part owner in 18301 Von Karman, along with the Monster Beverage duo, sources tell the Business Journal.
It’s one of three offices at Von Karman Towers of which Greenlaw is a part owner and the second building there that Sacks and Schlosberg have been reported to take an ownership stake in.
The Business Journal reported in December that a venture between Greenlaw and the Monster executives paid about $39.5 million for 18401 Von Karman, a five-story office next-door to its latest purchase that spans about 115,000 square feet.
$360M Splurge
The 18301 Von Karman buy adds to a string of OC-area office purchases by Sacks and Schlosberg, who have quickly built up a portfolio ranking among the area’s largest for private investors of commercial real estate. The two have been involved in local office purchases valued at close to $360 million over the past two years, according to Business Journal data.
Around the same time as December’s buy, they invested in a deal with Greenlaw to buy Tustin Centre, a two-building office complex in Santa Ana overlooking the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway near East 17th Street.
The property sold for a little more than $80 million, according to CoStar records.
Other notable OC properties that the duo owns include Savi Tech Center, a four-building business park just off the Riverside (91) Freeway in Yorba Linda, and TriCentre, a 10-story office at the intersection of the Santa Ana (I-5) and Orange (57) freeways in Orange.
Sacks and Schlosberg appear to have plenty of cash to finance their office buys. Each has a personal fortune that the Business Journal conservatively estimates to be about $2.5 billion.
The Orange County denizens bought what was then Anaheim-based Hansen Natural Corp. in 1992 for $1.7 million, plus the assumption of $12 million in debt, according to news reports.
Sacks serves as chairman and chief executive of Monster Beverage, and Schlosberg is president and chief operating officer.
The company, best known for its caffeine-fueled Monster Energy drink, is now valued at $26 billion.
The slew of office buys are for Sacks and Schlosberg’s private investment portfolio, sources told the Business Journal. The drink company hasn’t been directly involved in any of the OC real estate deals, and there are no plans to use any of the buildings for its operations, according to sources.
Active Corner
The area around 18301 Von Karman has recently experienced a flurry of renovation and redevelopment work.
Lakeshore Towers, a multibuilding campus next to Von Karman Towers, is undergoing a heavy amount of expansion and renovation work to its parking structures and outdoor space.
Across the street from Von Karman Towers, a retail center called Trade is unveiling a new open-air food hall, the first of its type in the city. The project is headed by the local office of Lincoln Property Co.
In addition to the 18301 and 18401 Von Karman buildings, Greenlaw Partners also owns an 11-story building at 18201 Von Karman that it bought in late 2015 through a venture with New York Life Insurance Co.
The only office at the four-building complex that it has no ownership stake in is the 2211 Michelson building, a 12-story tower owned by Los Angeles-based Kilroy Realty Corp. (see real estate column, page 49).
