SANTA ANA –– Excavators yesterday tore through a two-building office campus, dubbed Elevate, along Santa Ana’s Harbor Boulevard.
Their demolition, another casualty of the distressed office market, marks the start of redevelopment for Harbor Logistics Center, a 163,000-square-foot Class A warehouse and distribution complex located at 3100 and 3130 S. Harbor Boulevard, near the San Diego (405) Freeway. Officials expect the facility to deliver by the end of the year.
The project, headed by Los Angeles-based Kearny Real Estate Co., is bittersweet, according to Assistant Vice President Dan Broder.
“It’s a little sad seeing the offices that we [fixed up] get so quickly torn down, but we determined that [industrial] will be the best use of this land,” Broder told the Business Journal.
Kearny acquired the property for $35 million in 2018, renovated it and last year executed a $49 million recapitalization deal for the complex with Dune Real Estate Partners.
Vacancy among Orange County industrial properties remained at 2.8% in the fourth quarter, among the lowest levels in SoCal, according to a report by JLL. Office vacancy, by contrast, totaled nearly 18% for the region.
Elevate’s redevelopment is one of several office-to-industrial conversions in OC, due to high demand for industrial space.
Among the nearby projects is Santa Ana’s Park 55, which Irvine-based Greenlaw Partners and Chicago-based Walton Street Capital are looking to revamp into an industrial complex.
