Sares-Regis Group plans to turn one of the last big swaths of empty, developable land in Ontario into a major industrial project.
The Irvine-based developer said this month that it closed on the purchase of 150 acres in the San Bernardino County city and is planning a seven-building industrial development of about 3 million square feet.
It paid an estimated $55.7 million, or roughly $371,000 per acre, according to brokerage data.
The property, just north of the I-10 Freeway near Vineyard Avenue and close to the Ontario International Airport, had been owned for about 50 years by the Tustin-based Meredith Family Trust, according to local news reports.
Sares-Regis had worked with the city for several years to get the property entitled for industrial uses. City officials have described it as one of Ontario’s last vacant pieces of land under single ownership.
The family trust still owns another 80 acres of adjacent land where about 800 apartments are planned, along with a sizable office and retail development.
“This is the largest and last tract of developable land in the western end of the Inland Empire and located on the I-10 Freeway,” Larry Lukanish, senior vice president of Sares-Regis’ commercial development division, said in a statement.
The developer is planning to break ground soon on the project’s first and largest building, a 1-million-square-foot facility that was preleased to West Chester, Pa.-based video and e-commerce retailer QVC this month.
The building will be QVC’s first West Coast distribution hub and is scheduled to open by next July. QVC said it could ultimately hire upward of 1,000 people to staff it and it plans to invest more than $165 million in the facility.
Sares-Regis said the six remaining industrial buildings planned for the development will range from 130,000 square feet to 575,000 square feet and will be available for lease.
The entire project will be completed by late next year, said the company, whose other big area industrial development is the Douglas Park project next to Long Beach Airport.
Chuck Noble, a principal with the Orange office of Lee & Associates, represented the Meredith family in the sale to Sares-Regis, along with colleagues John Hatzis and Dave Hunsaker.
Sares-Regis was represented in the land acquisition and the QVC lease by Joe McKay, also of Lee & Associates. QVC was represented by CBRE Group Inc. brokers Erik Wanland and Mike Barker.
Mouse House
Walt Disney Co. is taking steps to convert a big industrial property it owns near its Anaheim theme parks into its own uses.
The company recently filed plans with the city of Anaheim to change the use of 1515 S. Manchester Ave., a nearly 160,000-square-foot industrial building it owns next to the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway a few blocks from its two area theme parks.
Disney paid a reported $48.4 million last year to buy the building and an adjoining 79,000-square-foot office at 1585 S. Manchester that’s leased to a government agency.
The industrial building at 1515 S. Manchester is leased to Kavo Kerr Group, a manufacturer of dental-related products. In 2007, Kavo, which formerly operated under the name Sybron Dental Specialties Inc., announced it signed a 10-year lease for the building, valued at $17.3 million.
A long-term extension of the lease doesn’t appear to be in the cards. Disney said in city filings that it wants to convert the existing facility “for back-of-house office and warehouse uses to support the theme parks, hotel and entertainment venues within the Disneyland Resort.”
Disney’s largest office property in Anaheim’s resort area is a four-story building on Ball Avenue of nearly 340,000 square feet.
Denver Deal
An affiliate of Irvine-based Steadfast Cos. has paid $91 million for a pair of apartment complexes just outside Denver.
The company’s Steadfast Apartment REIT this month announced the acquisition of the Bella Terra at City Center, and Hearthstone at City Center rental communities in Aurora, Colo., about 20 minutes outside of Denver.
The complexes total 664 units and sold for about $137,000 per unit.
Santa Barbara-based Granite Peak Properties Inc. sold the complexes, according to local news reports.
