Orange County Business Center, a five-building office park in Santa Ana, has traded hands for nearly $74 million, in one of the largest office deals in the area this year.
Last week Irvine-based Greenlaw Partners closed on the purchase of the multitenant business park on East Dyer Road a few blocks west of the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway.
The two-story buildings total about 437,000 square feet. The complex sold for just under $168 per square foot, according to the seller, Glendale-based PS Business Parks Inc.
The property—next to a group of hotels that sit alongside the 55 Freeway—was about 85% leased at the time of the sale, according to PS Business Parks.
By total price, the deal is the second-largest office transaction in OC this year, trailing only the $147.3 million sale of Orange’s City Tower building, according to real estate market tracker CoStar Group Inc.
Orange County Business Center was listed for sale by Kevin Shannon, Paul Jones, Ken White and Blake Bokosky with the local capital markets group of Newmark Knight Frank, the same brokerage team that helped sell City Tower to an affiliate of Newport Beach-based KBS Realty Advisors in March.
As in the case of 21-story City Tower, a local buyer snapped up Orange County Business Center. Privately held Greenlaw has been one of the most active buyers of area office properties the past few years, with investments in a number of class A buildings in the airport area of Irvine and Newport Beach.
It’s partnered with wealthy local and institutional investors for much of its recent acquisition activity.
Its partner in the Santa Ana deal was Chicago-based Walton Street Capital.
2 Down, 1 to Go
PS Business Parks bought Orange County Business Center in 2003 for about $45 million, according to property records.
That brings its sales in OC to about $115 million this year, with one more transaction to come.
In March, the office and industrial property investor sold Corporate Pointe, a five-building office park in Irvine, for nearly $42 million.
Irvine-based real estate investor Kelemen Caamaño Investments bought the 161,000-square-foot property. The complex is near the intersection of Jamboree Road and Barranca Parkway and the District at Tustin Legacy shopping center. It paid about $260 per square foot for the property.
Corporate Pointe is in line for a major renovation by its new owners, who specialize in creative-office redevelopment projects. Kelemen Caamaño earmarked $8 million for upgrades to the property’s interior and exterior.
Also on the sales block: Orangewood, a two-building park in Orange of 107,000 square feet. It’s owned by PS Business Parks, but should sell this year, the company said.
PS Business Parks, which has a market value of $3.1 billion, owned seven OC business parks with nearly 2 million square feet of space late last year, prior to the Irvine and Santa Ana sales.
Dyer Developments
Orange County Business Center is the latest notable real estate deal on a half-mile stretch on Dyer Road.
Around the start of the year, the local office of development and investment firm Hines paid nearly $57 million for 515 E. Dyer Road, a 414,309-square-foot industrial building on nearly 18 acres.
Hines plans an extensive overhaul of the vacant industrial site. It was last used by Irvine-based Royalty Carpet Mills Inc., which shuttered its operations last year.
Also nearby is a roughly 25-acre site at 666 E. Dyer Road that previously held about 360,000 square feet of industrial space owned and used by ITT Corp., a White Plains, N.Y.-based company that makes a variety of high-tech products.
The buildings were razed about a year ago, with an eye on building one of the first sets of large industrial buildings in the vicinity of John Wayne Airport in years.
A nine-building industrial development totaling 495,667 square feet has been proposed for the site, according to preliminary city filings.
Numerous real estate sources point to Aliso Viejo-based Shea Properties as the likely developer of the industrial project, although a deal to buy the site has yet to be confirmed by either Shea or ITT Corp.
