The Brea office building that holds a bulk of the operations of Veterinary Pet Insurance Co. is up for sale.
Brokers with the local offices of Voit Real Estate Services and HFF recently listed for sale Fairway Center I, a 145,000-square-foot office at 1800 E. Imperial Highway.
The center, about a mile from Brea Mall, is the city’s fifth-largest office building, according to Costar Group Inc. records.
An asking price for the two-story office, which is owned by a venture between Irvine-based LBA Realty and Cigna Investments, wasn’t disclosed. Sources said the building is likely to command a price in excess of $30 million.
The property is 97% leased to five tenants. Brea-based VPI Pet Insurance, a unit of Nationwide Insurance Co., moved to the building in 2011 after signing a 76,000-square-foot lease that runs until late 2018.
The company, which has other offices in Brea, brokers and underwrites insurance policies covering medical treatments for dogs, cats and other pets. It currently insures more than 500,000 animals.
Other tenants include Farmers Insurance and Beazer Homes.
Fairway Center II, a 134,000-square-foot office next-door that’s owned by Johns Creek, Ga.-based Piedmont Office Realty Trust, is not part of the sale.
Southeast Sale
One of the larger out-of-state properties in the portfolio of Irvine-based Crown Realty & Development Corp. is reportedly for sale.
Trade publication Real Estate Alert recently listed Crown’s holdings at Imperial Center Business Park, a multibuilding portfolio in Durham, N.C., as being for sale.
The 1.1 million square feet of space that’s being offered for sale has an asking price of about $110 million, making it one of the largest and most expensive industrial projects in the Southeast that’s on the market, according to the report. Cushman & Wakefield Inc. has the listing for the property, which is near Research Triangle Park.
In 2008, Crown Realty paid a reported $113 million for 13 office, flex and warehouse buildings at Imperial Center totaling nearly 1.6 million square feet. The deal was the first in the Southeast for the developer, which at the time was focused exclusively on office, industrial, retail and hospitality properties in California and Arizona.
Since 2008, Crown Realty has sold at least one large building at Imperial Center, a 450,000-square-foot structure that went for $22.6 million, according to local reports.
It also bought a 182,000-square-foot building there in 2010 for $7.5 million and subsequently sold it for $11.5 million.
Most of Crown Realty’s Orange County deals of late have also been sales. In June, it sold a 128,000-square-foot Santa Ana office project next to the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway for about $16 million.
The company’s website said Crown Realty’s current portfolio tops 5 million square feet of space across the country.
ARES Buys
Irvine’s Advanced Real Estate Services Inc. has added to its portfolio a soon-to-be-renovated apartment complex near downtown Fullerton.
The apartment investor, also known as ARES, recently completed the purchase of the Marquis Apartment Homes, an 88-unit complex at 1375 W. Valencia Drive.
The property sold for $14.2 million, or about $161,500 per apartment. Property records show the seller was Pacific Development Partners LLC of Santa Monica.
ARES said it plans to spend an additional $4.5 million in a complete overhaul of the project, which is being renamed Avignon.
R3 Construction Services Inc., ARES’ in-house construction company, will handle the renovations, which will include work on the interiors and exteriors of all of the property’s buildings and common areas.
It’s the first renovation since ARES and R3 Construction consolidated operations to an Irvine building on Barranca Parkway this year, according to ARES president Richard Julian.
ARES had been based in Lake Forest, and R3 Construction was in Anaheim.
“We have already seen multiple benefits of having our construction group in the same building while planning for this renovation,” Julian said.
The consolidated operations in Irvine mean the company has three general contractors on staff and complete plumbing, heating and air conditioning; wood repair and paint teams; a cabinet shop; and a fully inventoried warehouse facility.
“We have not encountered another multifamily operator on the West Coast with in-house capabilities comparable to what we have assembled,” Julian said.
ARES, R3 Construction and the company’s management division combine for about 400 employees. ARES owns more than 6,000 apartments in Southern California.
