Newport Beach-based real estate investor WCB Properties LP has bought Santa Ana’s premier office tower, Xerox Centre, for $77.5 million.
Xerox Centre, at 1851 E. First Street near the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway, is 321,000 square feet, putting the sale at $241 per square foot.
The tower, which is further from John Wayne Airport than other recent towers sold or up for sale, didn’t command a record price.
WCB Properties teamed with UBS Realty Investors on the buy. The seller was Santa Ana-based Triple Net Properties LLC, which pooled together a group of investors to buy the building for $60 million in 2003.
The sale is part of a move by Triple Net to liquidate a real estate investment trust it runs.
Along with Xerox Corp., tenants include Ashland Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. The building is 85% full. Monthly rent is about $2.40 per square foot.
WCB Properties, which has bought or developed more than 11 million square feet of properties nationally, is known for reworking buildings and making them more profitable. That’s the plan for Xerox Centre, according to Sean Tabor, WCB Properties senior vice president.
The company said it also likes Santa Ana’s plans to redevelop the area around Xerox Centre, including with possible condominiums.
The tower is WCB Properties’ biggest investment in Orange County. More deals could be on the way. The company recently freed up $350 million by selling a number of office and other properties in Southern California and Denver.
The company’s current portfolio, totaling about 2 million square feet of commercial property, is in San Diego, San Francisco and Minneapolis.
