Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. is exploring a sale of its Anaheim headquarters in an effort to raise cash.
The apparel and accessories retailer has listed its 180,000-square-foot headquarters on East Miraloma Avenue for sale with the idea of leasing back the building from its new owner under a long-term contract.
The three-story building, which is a few blocks north of the Riverside (91) Freeway and near Boeing Co.’s former Anaheim campus, could fetch more than $30 million from a potential investor, according to real estate watchers not involved in the deal.
The office has an appraised value of $22.5 million, according to CoStar records.
Company officials said a final decision to move forward with the headquarters sale hadn’t been made.
“We’re continuing to explore (a sale), but no determination’s been made at this point,” PacSun Chief Executive Gary Schoenfeld told analysts this month after the company’s third-quarter earnings announcement.
PacSun lost $3.4 million in the prior quarter on $205.9 million in sales. It has posted an operating loss of about $12.5 million in the first nine months of the year, and its stock price has fallen about 90% over the past 12 months. The company’s market value is about $16 million.
It also is considering a similar sale and lease-back of its main distribution facility in Olathe, Kan., which has about 450,000 square feet.
The two deals would “result in substantial eight-figure net proceeds,” Schoenfeld told analysts.
Such a deal would boost the company’s cash and cash equivalents holdings, which have fallen from $22.6 million in January to $11.3 million at the end of the third quarter.
The Anaheim building had $15.9 million in debt tied to it as of March, according to company regulatory filings.
The 3450 E. Miraloma building is on about 7.7 acres and was built in 2002.
Brokers with the Newport Beach and El Segundo offices of CBRE Group Inc. who have the listing for the property declined to comment on the potential sale.
CBRE’s marketing materials for the property say that under the proposed transaction, PacSun would lease it back under a 15-year deal, with monthly rents starting at about $1.55 per square foot, or just under $280,000. Rents would increase 3% annually.
A potential buyer was not disclosed.
A number of other large area companies, including Emulex Corp. and the parent company of the Orange County Register, have completed sales-leaseback deals for all or part of their headquarters in recent years, taking advantage of rising area office prices.
The Anaheim headquarters and the Kansas distribution building are PacSun’s two largest remaining real estate assets after it shed a few other local properties in 2008 and 2009.
In 2008 it sold its 300,000-square-foot distribution center at 3454 E. Miraloma for $24.5 million to a venture headed by Panattoni Development Co.
Newport Beach-based Panattoni, which has built a multibuilding industrial development called Anaheim Concourse on land close to the Miraloma property, leased the distribution building to Panasonic Corporation of North America and resold the property in 2011 for a reported $30 million.
In 2009 PacSun sold a 6.3-acre parcel next to its headquarters to Irvine-based Sares-Regis Group, which built a three-building industrial development there called Canyon Point.
The land sold for about $4 million, according to regulatory filings.
PacSun isn’t alone among struggling Orange County-based apparel and retail companies trying to make real estate moves this year.
Apparel manufacturer and retailer Quiksilver Inc., which filed for bankruptcy in September, consolidated its leased headquarters space in Huntington Beach as part of its restructuring plan, and moved some of its warehousing operations to a distribution center in the Inland Empire.
Fast-fashion retailer Wet Seal LLC’s landlord has leased a majority of the company’s Foothill Ranch headquarters and distribution facility to Kawasaki Motors Corp. U.S.A., which moved its North American headquarters from Irvine. Wet Seal filed for bankruptcy this past January.
