Irvine-based real estate investor PRES Cos. has made its second large acquisition in North Orange County this year—a four-building office portfolio in Brea.
The privately held company recently closed on the purchase of the three-building Brea Park Center and the single-building Brea Corporate Plaza.
The three-story offices are about a mile east of the Orange (57) Freeway on Imperial Highway and total 290,557 square feet.
They traded hands for $42 million, or just under $145 per square foot.
Long Beach-based Abbey Co. sold the buildings, which it had owned since 2006.
The deal is PRES’ first in Brea.
The strengthening office market in the city was a big factor in the company’s decision to invest there, said David Bonaparte, managing principal for PRES, which also operates under the name Professional Real Estate Services Inc.
“The Brea office market vacancy dropped to 12% in the second quarter of this year, and we see a great opportunity to add value to the portfolio with an aggressive leasing program,” Bonaparte said.
The four buildings were about 72% occupied at the time of the sale and have had strong leasing activity of late, according to Bonaparte.
The offices have monthly rents of about $1.80 per square foot, according to CoStar Group Inc. data.
Monthly rents for Brea’s 4-million-square-foot office market averaged about $1.95 per square foot at the end of June, about 5 cents below the county average, according to brokerage data.
Tenants at Brea Park Center, which is near the intersection of Imperial Highway and Kraemer Boulevard, include Citizens Business Bank, the General Services Administration, FIT Electronics, and the California Department of Public Health.
The buildings at the complex total about 171,411 square feet.
The single-building Brea Corporate Plaza is a few blocks east of the other complex, near the intersection of Valencia Avenue and Imperial. Its tenants include Nestlé Waters and Yellow Box Corp.
Avison Young principals Dan Vittone and Alan Pekarcik, who are in the brokerage’s Irvine office, represented PRES in the acquisitions.
Other Brea Buys
The PRES purchase adds to a string of recent notable office buys in Brea.
A venture headed by Hines Interests LP in Houston bought Brea Place, a six-building office campus on South State College Boulevard, in May.
The complex, which totals nearly 560,000 square feet, sold for nearly $80 million, or $142 per square foot, according to brokerage data.
Los Angeles-based commercial real estate investment management and advisory firm Palisades Capital Realty Advisors LLC this month closed on the purchase of 2929 Imperial Highway, a two-story office.
The 121,153-square-foot building, home to Zodiac Inflight Innovations, a maker of portable in-flight entertainment players and related software, sold for about $20.8 million, or nearly $172 per square foot, according to CoStar records.
PRES Co.’s Brea purchase also adds to the investor’s growing portfolio in North OC.
It paid a reported $18 million in January for the 200 Center St. Promenade building, a nearly 201,000-square-foot office near Anaheim’s City Hall.
The building previously served as a regional headquarters for AT&T Inc. but is now largely vacant. It’s about a mile from Disneyland Resort and is being marketed to a variety of users.
The company also paid a little more than $5 million in February for a nearly 40,000-square-foot office on Lincoln Avenue in Orange.
“We’ve been migrating north. It’s where most of the deals (in Orange County) have been,” Bonaparte said.
PRES, which was founded by President Brad Schroth in 1995, is in the midst of one of its busiest years for acquisitions, with more than $120 million in office and hotel buys over the past 12 months.
Recent deals outside OC include a $27 million office purchase in San Francisco and a pair of hotel acquisitions in Coronado near San Diego and in Sonoma County.
