The Lakes Pavilions retail center in the arts district of Costa Mesa has sold in a long-awaited deal that paves the way for a high-end apartment complex to be built at a site across the street from the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.
A venture led by Foster City Legacy Partners Residential Inc. last month completed the acquisition of the 23,000-square-foot retail center at Anton Boulevard and Avenue of the Arts.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the roughly 2-acre property was estimated to have sold for nearly $21.3 million, or about $10.6 million per acre, according to CoStar Group Inc. records. That’s one of the highest reported per-acre prices for an Orange County site slated for residential development of late.
An Anaheim-based family trust was the seller, according to property records.
Legacy Partners has been working for several years to get the site entitled for development. A pair of 25-story condo towers under the name Californian at Town Center was originally planned for the site; in 2013, the developer changed course and began working with the city on plans to build a five-story, 250-unit upscale rental project.
The retail project will be razed to make way for the apartments, with construction scheduled to start this year.
“This is an exciting time for our company, having secured one of the most prominent sites in this vibrant district,” Tim O’Brien, senior managing director for Legacy Partners Residential, said in a news release.
“With this new neighborhood, we expect to set the bar for luxury apartment residences in Orange County,” he said.
The developer has previously said that the currently unnamed project will cost about $100 million to build. It’s one of two midrise, high-end apartment projects now on the books in the arts district, along with a nearby site planned for land owned by Santa Ana-based Sakioka Co.
The Legacy Partners site is next to the Avenue of the Arts Wyndham Hotel, where one high-rise condo project is proceeding.
The owners of the hotel, Rosanna Inc., last month filed plans with the city to build a 23-story, 100-unit luxury condo tower on land Rosanna owns next to the Wyndham.
Rosanna is an affiliate of the Wincome Group, a Hong Kong-based real estate owner and investor that also has hotels in Anaheim.
Guthrie Gain
Newport Beach-based Guthrie Development has bought a three-building property in Brea that it plans to convert into for-sale industrial condominium units.
The commercial real estate company last month closed on the purchase of the three industrial buildings, at 950, 1050 and 1150 W. Central Ave.
The property is near the intersection of Central Avenue and Puente Street and about a mile west of the Orange (57) Freeway.
The buildings total about 84,000 square feet and sold for nearly $11.8 million, or about $140 per square foot.
LBA Realty in Irvine sold the property, which it acquired from Los Angeles-based Kilroy Realty Corp. in 2012 as part of a larger portfolio acquisition.
Each of the buildings is fully occupied and has four units ranging from 6,000 to 12,000 square feet.
The new owner said it plans to invest “a few million dollars” for processing entitlements and speculative tenant improvements to convert the multitenant park into industrial condominiums for sale.
Vacancy rates at industrial buildings in the Brea submarket are below 3%, and there are a limited number of similarly sized buildings in the market, making the new project appealing to prospective buyers, the developer said.
“There has been no new construction in this product type since 2008. We’re currently at a time when we are seeing strong demand and price appreciation for this class of small building industrial product,” said Rob Guthrie, president of the development company.
The plan “is to work on converting our existing tenants into owners while reinvesting in the property,” Guthrie said.
The company has developed and sold 43 small buildings in Brea that total more than 300,000 square feet.
Other for-sale industrial condo projects the company is working on include locations in Lake Forest and Ontario.
The Lake Forest project, a nearly 60,000-square-foot site called Foothill Business Park, has 25 units, of which eight have sold; another five are in escrow.
