An 8.6-acre site in Anaheim’s Platinum Triangle is being considered for a variety of new commercial real estate development options following its recent sale.
Pacific Industrial, a Long Beach-based developer of warehouses and distribution facilities, was part of an investment group that closed last month on property at 2222 E. Howell Ave., a site just off Katella Avenue and a short walk from Angel Stadium and Honda Center.
The land, now home to an auto repair shop and a collection of other small tenants, sold for just under $14.6 million, or about $1.7 million per acre.
The seller was affiliated with the Protestant Episcopalian Church in Los Angeles, according to state records.
Along with Pacific Industrial, the local office of TA Realty and an owner of an RV storage facility that has been on the property are also part of the new ownership group, according to property records.
The buyers took out a $20.2 million loan with an affiliate of UBS Realty Investors to finance the deal, records show.
The property will operate as-is for now, but the new owners are evaluating development options, and have enlisted Voit Real Estate Services’ Seth Davenport and Mitch Zehner to market the site.
Office, retail, hospitality and multifamily product types are being considered.
The site “has the potential to be developed into a variety of higher density product types, but, given the short supply of quality distribution product throughout the county, we also expect strong interest from the e-commerce sector,” Davenport said in a statement.
Voit also helped broker the sale to the Pacific Industrial-led group.
The sale is one of several big Platinum Triangle real estate transactions that have closed in recent weeks (see story, page 1).
KBS Activity
It’s been a busy few weeks of deal-making and operational changes for Newport Beach-based KBS Realty Advisors and the numerous real estate funds it oversees.
KBS, whose nationwide portfolio ranks No. 11 among U.S. office owners in terms of square footage, and who has nearly $11 billion of assets under management, completed a deal this month to list some of its assets on Singapore’s stock exchange, the SGX.
The company’s KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT Inc. sold 11 office properties it owns—none locally based—to Keppel-KBS US REIT, a new fund listed on the SGX. It’s the second U.S.-focused real estate investment trust listed on Singapore’s stock exchange.
The 11 properties sold for $804 million; KBS said it spent $52.5 million of the proceeds from the deal to acquire shares in the new SGX-listed offering, representing a 9.5% ownership interest.
Closer to home, an Irvine property that an affiliate of KBS runs—the 101,000-square-foot Von Karman Tech Center—is playing a part in a new “direct investor portal” that the company launched last month as a means to attract investors, minus some of the traditional transaction fees.
The company’s KBS Growth & Income REIT, a nontraded REIT it launched two years ago, is now looking to solicit investors through KBSDirect.com. Money raised through the investor portal would be used to buy additional properties.
“KBSDirect.com will save time for advisors and investors and opens a simplified, user-friendly direct investment portal,” said KBS chairman Peter Bren, brother of Irvine Co.’s Donald Bren, in a statement.
Von Karman Tech Center is one of a handful of buildings that KBS Growth & Income REIT currently owns; it paid about $21 million for it in 2015.
The investor portal will eventually be used in other offerings, according to the company.
Another KBS-led nontraded offering, KBS REIT III, doesn’t appear to be short of cash. It recently closed a $1.01-billion financing commitment, the largest such deal that any KBS affiliate has completed.
Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo and U.S. Bank are all involved in the funding deal, which consists of a $757.5 million term loan and a $252.5 million revolving loan.
KBS said the financing was used to refinance loans that were due to mature next year for a number of properties that are part of the REIT.
In management news, a few of the REITs that KBS runs recently added Jeff Dritley to their boards.
Dritley is managing partner of L.A.-based Kearny Real Estate Co. The developer just sold The Press, the creative-office revamp of the former Los Angeles Times facility in Costa Mesa (see page 67).
