Irvine-based real estate investment and management firm PRES Cos. has added another Central County office to its local portfolio.
The real estate investment and management firm, which also operates under the name Professional Real Estate Services Inc., recently closed on the purchase of 2700 N. Main St., a 12-story office next to the MainPlace Mall in Santa Ana.
The 111,268-square-foot building sold for about $20.5 million, or $184 per square foot, according to property records.
An investment group with ties to Tustin-based Durabag Co. Inc., a maker of plastic bags and other plastic products, sold the building, which it had owned for about 15 years.
The office, also known as the Wells Fargo Building, was about two-thirds occupied at the time of its sale, the bank among its larger tenants.
PRES Managing Principal David Bonaparte said his firm bought the office due in large part to its location next to the mall at the intersection of the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway and the Garden Grove (55) Freeway.
“We love the area,” Bonaparte said.
The 2700 N. Main St. building is on about 4.5 acres, and the property includes a good share of excess land that comes within a few yards of the southern edge of the 1.1-million-square-foot MainPlace Mall. The excess land is now used as surface parking for the office, but has the potential for additional development, according to Bonaparte.
The new owners have been in discussions with Santa Ana planning officials about potential options at the site, but haven’t disclosed any plans yet.
“We have some other ideas” for the excess land, Bonaparte said.
The deal is the first office purchase for PRES in Santa Ana, and follows another recent investment involving the company about a mile away at the 10-story TriCentre building in Orange. PRES was part of a venture that bought that building at the intersection of the I-5 and Orange (57) freeways last October for an estimated $41.5 million.
Other investors in the TriCentre office deal included Rodney Sacks and Hilton Schlosberg, the top two executives at Corona-based energy drink company Monster Beverage.
Bonaparte declined to discuss whether the Monster Energy duo or any other investors were part of the Santa Ana office purchase.
Sacks and Schlosberg are local residents; their wealth is estimated at $1.1 billion each, according to the Business Journal’s August listing of OC’s wealthiest people.
200 Center on Market
PRES also has been a recent active investor in the office markets in the northern part of the county, with buys in Anaheim, Brea, Orange and Yorba Linda totaling close to $100 million since the start of 2014, according to property records.
Among its notable recent North OC buys is Anaheim’s 200 Center St. Promenade building, a nearly 201,000-square-foot office near Anaheim City Hall.
PRES paid about $18 million for the eight-story building in 2014. It previously served as a regional headquarters for AT&T Inc. and was largely vacant at the time of PRES Cos.’ purchase but then landed an integrated-care medical group affiliated with Orange-based hospital operator St. Joseph Health System to occupy the entire building.
The Anaheim office is now being marketed for sale by brokers with the Newport Beach office of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank; an asking price hasn’t been disclosed.
“We’re in the process of marketing a couple things,” Bonaparte said. “We’re being selective sellers but still think it’s a good time to buy—but it’s not as easy as before (to find good deals).
“We should very active this year on the buy and sell side.”
The Main Street purchase is the latest in a string of midsize office sales in Santa Ana.
Santa Ana joins Irvine with the most individual office transactions in the $15 million to $50 million range—six each—among OC’s 34 cities over the past year, according to CoStar Group Inc. data.
Other office buildings trading hands recently in downtown Santa Ana include the 10-story Park Tower office on Santa Ana Boulevard, and 801 Civic Center Drive.
A venture including Santa Monica-based Ocean West Capital Partners bought both buildings, which total about 284,000 square feet, for a combined $28.3 million late last year, according to CoStar records.
The two buildings have a number of county and federal government agencies as primary tenants and had been in special servicing prior to their sales.
