An investor with ties to Irvine-based Obey Clothing has bought an industrial facility close to one of the apparel maker’s facilities near John Wayne Airport.
An Irvine-based entity operating as Group Effort 6 LLC recently closed on the purchase of a nearly 79,000-square-foot industrial building at 17353 Derian Ave., about a block from the intersection of Von Karman and McGaw avenues.
The property changed hands for $11.8 million, or nearly $150 per square foot, according to CoStar Group Inc. estimates. The new owners got an $8.8 million loan from Irvine-based First Foundation Bank to fund the purchase, property records show.
The buyer’s manager is listed in property records as Steven Mellgren, one of the owners of Obey Clothing, which makes urban-style clothes and accessories with designs licensed from graphic artist Shepard Fairey.
Obey’s current Irvine headquarters are at a 97,400-square-foot building it leases on Von Karman Avenue. The back of that property, at 17462 Von Karman Ave., borders buildings on Derian Avenue.
The Derian Avenue property was sold by an affiliate of Irvine-based Royalty Carpet Mills Inc., a longtime area manufacturer that has owned several buildings in the vicinity for its operations over the years.
Mike Derderian, Royalty Carpet’s founder, died in 2013. He bought the Derian Avenue property—the street is named after him—in 1973, according to the company’s website.
Other area industrial buildings owned by affiliates of Royalty Carpet have sold since 2013, including a 72,000-square-foot building on Alton Parkway that’s now being converted into a three-story self-storage facility that will total more than 200,000 square feet.
The company’s primary facility on Red Hill Avenue runs about 200,000 square feet and remains under the ownership of Royalty Carpet and its affiliates, according to property records.
The 17353 Derian Ave. building bought by the Mellgren-backed entity sits next to the headquarters of high-end clothes maker St. John Knits International Inc., which is at 17421 Derian Ave.
The two apparel companies share real estate ties to another Irvine building: Obey leases space at 2722 Michelson Drive, a property previously used by St. John as a manufacturing and office site.
The high-profile building, which sits at the intersection of Michelson and Jamboree Road, is being targeted for a major office, hotel and retail development by its current owner, LBA Realty in Irvine.
Obey signed a 170,000-square-foot lease for the Michelson property in 2013 but now has plans to vacate it in the not-too-distant future for the newly purchased property, said brokers not directly involved in the Derian Avenue sale.
LBA is marketing 2722 Michelson Drive for a short-term lease until development plans for the 9.4-acre property proceed; Cushman & Wakefield’s Bob Thagard and John Griffin have the listing for the property.
Drone Deal
Bingen, Wash.-based drone manufacturer Insitu Inc. has inked a deal to move one of its recently acquired divisions from Irvine to Plaza Tower in Costa Mesa.
The unit of defense giant Boeing recently signed a 3,400-square-foot lease at the 21-story office near South Coast Plaza that was designed by Cesar Pelli. Its mission systems division will relocate there from Irvine.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Rick Kaplan, Robert Lambert and Brian Booth represented landlord Offices of South Coast Plaza in the deal. Insitu was represented by Chris Houston of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank.
Insitu makes drones for commercial and military applications, often for use in areas with harsh weather conditions.
The company’s best-known drones are launched via a pneumatic launcher rather than a runway, allowing deployment from a variety of locations. Its systems cost several million dollars each, according to defense industry trade publications.
The company’s mission systems division previously operated as 2d3 Sensing, a unit of U.K.-based Oxford Metrics PLC, and was based in Irvine. It specializes in motion imagery processing of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data.
Oxford Metrics sold 2d3 Sensing last year to Insitu for $25 million.
