Edinger Plaza, a 155,275-square-foot shopping center in Huntington Beach across the street from the city’s largest mall, Bella Terra, has changed hands.
Property records indicate an affiliate of San Francisco-based investor Stockbridge Real Estate recently completed the purchase of the five-building property just west of the San Diego (405) Freeway and a few blocks from Beach Boulevard.
It was sold by Santa Monica-based Watt Commercial Properties, which had owned it since 1976.
Property records show the building traded hands for $65.5 million, or about $422 per square foot. The local retail brokerage team of CBRE Group Inc. had the listing, according to CoStar Group Inc. records, which indicated it’s the priciest sale of an Orange County retail property so far this year.
Edinger Plaza is anchored by a Nordstrom Rack, Dick’s Sporting Goods, PetSmart and Michaels, and was largely full at the time of the sale, according to brokerage data.
Monthly rents average about $2.25 per square foot.
Watt put a reported $20 million into the 15-acre property in a renovation completed in 2012. It turned a building that was being vacated by CVS Pharmacy into a larger, nearly 48,000-square-foot building that now holds the Dick’s Sporting Goods.
A 34,000-square-foot spot that was previously a Howard’s Appliance & Flat Screen Superstores location was turned into what’s now Nordstrom Rack.
The property is considered complementary to the 850,000-square-foot Bella Terra, which holds a Costco, Whole Foods, and Kohl’s, among other anchor tenants.
Bella Terra, the 21st-largest OC shopping center by sales last year with $116 million in taxable sales, according to Business Journal data, is in the middle of its own renovation project. About five months ago, DJM Capital Partners Inc., the center’s part-owner and manager, started a redevelopment of its main public space, with the stated goal of creating Huntington Beach’s “biggest and best backyard.”
The updated space will be called The Garden at Bella Terra and include an outdoor dining area, an open-air beer and wine garden, and a children’s area.
It’s replacing the center’s former amphitheater and should be done by next month.
Pond-Adjacent
The Anaheim Ducks are grabbing some office space a short skate from the Honda Center.
The hockey team recently signed a nearly 32,000-square-foot lease at 1500 S. Douglas Road, one of three buildings at the Arena Corporate Center office complex just north of the team’s home arena.
CoStar records indicate the Ducks will move into the space in March, subleasing from Conifer Health Solutions LLC.
The largest tenant in the 128,000-square-foot building is Carrington Mortgage Services LLC, according to CoStar records.
Ontario Addition
Newport Beach-based Landsea Homes has bought a 432-home development site in Ontario, the builder’s first project in San Bernardino County.
The 85-acre site is about six miles south of Ontario Airport next to the city’s Park Place development, one of the largest housing projects underway there.
Financial terms of the land deal were undisclosed.
Development is scheduled to start early next year for a mid-2020 sales opening, according to Landsea, the U.S. homebuilding arm of China-based Landsea Group.
In Orange County, Landsea has projects in the works at Lake Forest’s Iron Ridge community, and a townhome project near Lido Village.
Landsea is the latest OC-based builder with plans to beef up its affordable home offerings in the Inland Empire (see City Ventures story, page 3).
“The property’s location within mixed-use urban lifestyle districts positions it well for new construction and we’re very excited about the possibilities it provides,” said Tom Baine, president of Landsea’s Southern California division, in a statement.
