Werdin Wraps Up Dyer Park Sales
Another Mid-Counties Industrial Sale; Builders Grab Lots
REAL ESTATE
by Daniel D. Williams
Newport Beach-based Werdin Corp. has sold the last of its 12-unit, 101,000-square-foot Dyer Business Center industrial park.
In all, nine separate buyers paid $14 million for the Santa Ana complex, an average of $147 per square foot. The project has a high-profile address along the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway at Dyer.
Russell Werdin, the company’s chief executive, chalked up the sales to “a high-profile freeway frontage location, favorable financing and strong demand from small businesses seeking to own vs. rent.”
According to Werdin, the Dyer center is the first industrial project in 10 years in the John Wayne Airport area. Construction finished in November.
Buyers include a motorcycle parts distributor, surgical prosthetics maker, a graphics arts shop and an auto body repair facility. Mike Hartel and Kevin Turner of Colliers Seeley International Inc. marketed the buildings.
The buildings range from 7,557 to 10,873 square feet and are on 5.3 acres of land formerly owned by neighboring ITT Industries Inc.’s ITT Cannon.
The project falls within Santa Ana’s enterprise zone and created 300 jobs in the city, according to Werdin.
With the Dyer sale, Werdin said his company now is turning attention to another project, The Waters at Creekside, a 156,854-square-foot, nine-building office complex.
Werdin, who teamed with South Charles Investment Corp. on The Waters, is subdividing the project and focusing on sales to 1031 exchange buyers looking to defer capital gains on another property sale by putting the proceeds into a new one.
The garden-style buildings were developed in two phases between 1981 and 1985. The Waters is at 2900 Bristol St., near South Coast Plaza.
Essex Realty Management Inc. runs the property, while Liz Hurley and Heather McEwen of Trammel Crow Co. are marketing the project.
“We have tenants who have occupied space at the project for over a decade,” Werdin said.
Another Santa Fe Springs Sale
Industrial space sales are a relative bright spot in the region’s otherwise downtrodden real estate market.
First Industrial Realty Trust recently paid $5.8 million to Roll Properties International for the Shoemaker Business Park just over the North County line in Santa Fe Springs.
The seven-building, 105,000-square-foot industrial project is on 5.23 acres at 14928-14948 Shoemaker Ave. The park is 98% full.
Chuck Wilson, a senior vice president in Colliers Seeley’s Anaheim office, along with Mike Hefner of Voit Commercial Brokerage’s Orange County office, represented both parties.
Furniture Seller Picks Up pace
Fountain Valley-based Bhasin Ventures, which operates furniture retailer Furniture Direct, has signed a five-year lease for 25,613 square feet of retail space in the Laguna Hills Commerce Center. The value of the deal wasn’t disclosed.
The 513,000-square-foot Laguna Hills Commerce Center is at 23251 Avenida De La Carlota and includes several home furnishings tenants, including Krause’s, Carl’s Fine Furniture, Linder’s, Lamps Plus, Sit N Sleep, Ortho Mattress and Metropolix.
Ian Brown, Walter Pagel and Vanessa Brown of Grubb & Ellis Co.’s Newport Beach office represented both Bhasin and the owner, Lake Forest -based PS Business Parks.
RESIDENTIAL
Housing lot sales, particularly in the Inland Empire, are hot.
Irvine-based Park Place Partners Inc. brokered the sale of more than 600 lots from Temecula to Upland during the first quarter, plus an extra 338 acres of land. Buyers included: Denver-based MDC Holdings Inc.’s Richmond America (295 lots); Los Angeles-based KB Home (99 lots); Irvine-based Standard Pacific Corp. (87 lots); Newport Beach-based Capital Pacific Holdings Inc. (45 lots); and Temecula-based Curtis Development (81 lots).
The biggest deals included the sale of 84 3,500-square-foot lots and 211 5,000-square-foot lots at the Redhawk Communities development in Riverside County, and the sale of 338 acres of unimproved residential land within the Belle Meadows area of Lake Matthews.
Bits and Pieces:
Irvine-based geotechnical consultant Leighton & Associates has been hired by the city of Bakersfield and Parsons Brinkerhoff Quade & Douglas Inc. to provide services for the new Fairfax Road Interchange and a freeway in Bakersfield Bruce Anderson in L.J. Melody & Co.’s Newport Beach office along with John Clifford and Keith Huizinga of L.J. Melody’s Chicago office arranged $38.8 million in financing for Santa Ana’s 3 and 4 Hutton Centre.
