Paper Mart, the family-owned packaging supply company whose roots date back to the 1920s, has sold its 250,000-square-foot headquarters in the City of Orange, marking one of the larger industrial deals seen in the area this year.
A venture between Lincoln Property Co. and Artemis Real Estate Partners in late October closed on the purchase of 2164 N. Batavia St., an industrial facility that sits about a mile and a half north of Honda Center, next to the Santa Ana River.
The building sold for about $65 million, or roughly $260 per square foot.
By total price, it’s among the five largest single-building industrial sales in Orange County thus far in 2025, according to CoStar records.
1-Year Leaseback
The Batavia Street property was built in 1995, and originally served as home to liquor distributor Young’s Market Co.
Since 2010, the warehouse has been the headquarters for Paper Mart, which reportedly paid $22.2 million for the building.
Paper Mart, an online discount provider of gift wrapping and a variety of packaging supplies that reports employing over 160 people, currently occupies the entire building. As part of the just-completed deal, the seller and Paper Mart owner, Frick Family Properties, entered into a 12-month sale-leaseback with the new owners.
Paper Mart hasn’t disclosed where it plans to move to after the leaseback ends.
The company reports having over 20,000 items in stock, ranging from shipping boxes and packaging peanuts to takeout boxes for restaurants, glass bottles and wooden baskets for retail displays, and holiday wrapping paper and ribbons for gifts.
Lincoln and Artemis plan to upgrade the Batavia Street facility over the next year. After Paper Mart departs, the property will be available for lease for the first time. Jeff Read of Newmark will handle leasing for the building.
The facility currently offers state-of-the-art features such as 36-foot clear heights, 35 dock-high loading doors, skylights, ESFR sprinklers and LED warehouse lighting as well as above-standard on-site office space and parking, according to the new owners.
Lincoln’s Christian Tober led the acquisition for the new owners, while Louis Friedel and Keith Rosso of Berkadia sourced financing for the investment.
Growing Portfolio
The purchase marks the largest local property acquisition made by Lincoln since 2022, when the firm bought the Square on Main office campus in Orange, Parke Miller, executive vice president at Dallas-based Lincoln and head of the firm’s OC operations, told the Business Journal.
Lincoln counts an extensive portfolio of office and industrial holdings in OC, including the Flight creative office campus in Tustin. It also has a sizeable local commercial property management portfolio, which tops 14 million square feet.
The addition of the Batavia Street property “to our Southern California infill portfolio enables us to meet evolving tenant demand with high-quality, flexible industrial space while leveraging Lincoln’s full-service investment and management capabilities,” Miller said.
The partnership with Chevy Chase, Maryland-based Artemis is the first joint venture between Lincoln and Artemis in over a decade.
The purchase “underscores Artemis’ conviction in the strength and resilience of Class A infill industrial assets,” said Artemis’ Jonathan Rainford. “As Orange County continues to outperform, this facility provides the modern infrastructure tenants require to operate efficiently.”
October Owner-User Sales
The Paper Mart transaction marks one of several notable sales by owner-users in OC over the past month.
In Brea, government consulting agency HdL Cos. recently sold the 80,000-square-foot multitenant office building it owned and uses it as its headquarters at 120 S. State College Blvd.
Property records indicate a Monterey Park-based investor paid $19.5 million for the three-story office that sits just west of the Orange (57) freeway. HdL paid a reported $23 million for the offices, which it and other tenants use, in 2019.
In La Habra, the new owners of retailer Howard’s Appliances recently sold the 31,000-square-foot building that previously served as the headquarters for Howards and also holds one of its four OC showrooms.
A locally-based LLC paid $6 million for the Imperial Highway property, CoStar records indicate.
Howards was acquired in April by S5 Equity, SoCal-based investment firm. Howards now lists its HQ as being in City of Industry.
