Santa Ana-based SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union, the largest credit union in California, has added one of the most prominent office buildings in the Inland Empire market to its real estate portfolio.
The firm, which had $13.9 billion in assets as of mid-2017 and is the country’s largest credit union for school employees, completed the purchase this month of one of two buildings at the Towers at Riverwalk office complex in Riverside, paying about $25.4 million.
It was already the primary tenant at 4204 Riverwalk Parkway, using the site as its Inland Empire headquarters, a regional office, call center and retail branch.
The four-story, 96,500-square-foot office just off the Riverside (91) Freeway about three miles east of the Corona (15) Freeway, sold for nearly $263 per square foot.
It was sold by a venture headed by Newport Beach-based Stillwater Investment Group, which about a year ago bought both offices at the 193,642-square-foot campus for $38.2 million, or $197 per square foot. It made the buy in a venture with Irvine-based Greenlaw Partners and Boston-based CrossHarbor Capital Partners.
Stillwater founder John Drachman said his investment group plans to keep the other building at the Turner Riverwalk development, which is about 100% leased to multiple tenants.
The buy comes as SchoolsFirst plans to expand Orange County operations. Last year I reported it entered negotiations with the city of Tustin to buy 1.7 acres just off the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway near Edinger Avenue. The site could hold an 185,000-square-foot, four-story office, a retail branch, and a four-story parking structure, according to 2017 city documents.
Plans disclosed then called for SchoolsFirst to “relocate its corporate headquarters, including the ‘C-Suite’ and board of directors” into the proposed building.
The credit union’s current headquarters is a few miles away in Santa Ana on North Broadway. It employs nearly 1,300 people in OC, primarily in Tustin.
SchoolsFirst already has a two-building operations center in Tustin next to the site of the proposed office. The Riverside purchase wouldn’t impact the Tustin development; last month the school was still in closed-door negotiations with the city over the terms of the land purchase, according to city filings.
Privately held Stillwater, an investor in office, industrial, apartment and retail properties operating since 2014, also has its share of local plans. In Aliso Viejo, it’s working to lease out the three-building former campus of QLogic Corp. that it bought in 2016 as part of a venture for $36 million. QLogic moved its local hub to Irvine.
The three-building campus, now called Element Aliso Viejo, is about 161,000 square feet. It also includes about 2.5 empty acres that could hold additional development.
Drachman said renovation of campus exteriors is about 90% complete and that the site’s been attracting healthy tenant interest.
Calling All Developers
The Business Journal will publish its annual list of Orange County’s top commercial developers in our June 11 issue.
With a surge in ground-up and redevelopment projects over the past few years, we want to make sure we don’t overlook potential entries.
If your company has completed or broken ground on an office, industrial, retail, hotel or mixed-use development in OC in the past year, contact our research director, Dana Truong, at truong@ocbj.com to request a list survey. The entry deadline is June 1.
Commercial projects larger than 50,000 square feet are likely large enough to qualify. Creative-office and other substantive redevelopment work on existing properties are also candidates.
