Allergan PLC has put a pair of office properties it owns in Irvine on the market. It’s the first time Allergan has tried to shed locally owned buildings since its sale to Actavis PLC this year.
CBRE Group Inc. brokers representing the drugmaker put the low-rise properties—the 18800 Von Karman Ave. office building and the two-building Dupont Business Center office park that’s next door—up for sale this month.
The empty offices total about 68,500 square feet combined, according to brokerage data. They’re both across the street from Allergan’s main office campus near John Wayne Airport.
The properties are being listed for sale separately and went to market unpriced.
Allergan is estimated to have paid close to $9 million for Dupont Business Center, which is at the intersection of Dupont Drive and Bardeen Avenue. Its buildings total about 49,146 square feet.
The 18800 Von Karman Ave. building, which runs about 19,582 square feet, is estimated to have sold for nearly $6 million.
Each property is being marketed as a potential creative-office redevelopment project, among other uses. CBRE’s Gary Stache, Anthony DeLorenzo and Doug Mack with the brokerage’s Newport Beach office have the listings for both properties.
Allergan bought the offices last year when it was in the midst of defending itself from a hostile takeover attempt by Canada-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and activist investor Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP.
The company later sold itself to Actavis in a deal valued at $72.5 billion. It retained the Allergan name following the sale but is now headquartered in Ireland and operates from New Jersey.
An estimated 1,000 jobs have been cut at the company’s Irvine operations since the Actavis deal closed this year, according to state employment records.
It’s believed that some positions have been shifted to Irvine from other locations, but the net effect has not been disclosed.
The maker of Botox, Latisse and other products had about 2,500 workers in Orange County a year ago.
No other local Allergan-owned buildings in Irvine, where the company’s campus runs nearly an entire block, are known to be under consideration for sale, according to real estate sources.
Fast-Growth Tenant
LBA Realty has found a new tenant for an office in Aliso Viejo it bought last year, according to brokerage data.
The Irvine-based investor landed UST Global Inc., an information technology services provider that’s already based in Aliso Viejo, to lease all of 5 Polaris Way, a 78,702-square-foot office just off the San Joaquin Hills (73) Toll Road, according to the latest quarterly office report from Newport Beach-based Voit Real Estate Services.
The lease is Orange County’s second-largest office deal of the third quarter by square footage and the largest new lease during that period, according to Voit’s data.
UST Global currently leases about 30,000 square feet at the nearby 20 Enterprise office building in the Summit Office Campus, according to CoStar records.
That lease expires next year, according to the market tracker.
The IT company has recently been one of Orange County’s fastest-growing private companies. It had $800 million in 2014 revenue, up from an estimated $580 million in 2013.
It is OC’s 17th fastest-growing privately owned company by revenue, according to the Business Journal’s June listing, which tracked growth over a two-year period. It was also the highest-ranked newcomer on the list, according to our annual feature.
LBA bought the 5 Polaris building last year for a reported $18.4 million. It was one of two in Aliso Viejo that computer giant Dell Inc. took over as part of its $2.4 billion buy of Quest Software in 2012.
Dell was expected to lease back the property from LBA through the end of this year following that deal, according to brokerage data.
