An affiliate of Newport Beach-based KBS Realty Advisors that buys distressed, underleased and other troubled real estate properties has bought an office campus outside Seattle for $78.7 million.
The company’s KBS Strategic Opportunity REIT Inc. said late last month it was nearing the purchase of the QBE Corporate Campus, a nine-building office campus in Bellevue, Wash., just south of Microsoft’s world headquarters.
The 326,384-square-foot property, located on 46 acres of land, traded hands for about $241 per square foot.
The property was put up for sale about three months ago.
The sale closed last week, according to the company.
KBS said it doesn’t plan to make any notable upgrades to the property, which will be rebranded as Bellevue Technology Center.
The campus previously held the headquarters of Unigard Insurance, which was bought by Australia-based QBE Insurance Group in 2007.
QBE had occupied a sizable portion of the campus but is said to be downsizing its operations there, according to local reports. The complex now is about 62% leased.
The acquisition is the largest buy to date by far by the strategic opportunity REIT, which aims to buy real estate with more leasing risk than four other non-traded real estate investment trusts that KBS manages.
The offering, launched in late 2009, had raised more than $258 million from investors as of late March. It has bought more than $100 million of buildings and land to date, not including the QBE campus.
KBS—at the outset of the non-traded REIT—said it expected to invest about 40% of its funds on direct real estate buys like the Bellevue campus, with the rest of the money spent buying mortgages of distressed properties and other indirect real estate investments.
The company expects that more than 50% of its portfolio will consist of direct investments in opportunistic real estate following the QBE campus acquisition.
Lots Sale
Lots at a senior community in Huntington Harbour that were recently renovated by local developer Burnham USA are going up for sale at a price well below those seen for most homes in that area.
The 15-acre Huntington Harbour Village, a 130-home community that targets residents older than 55, said it has released a limited number of manufactured home lots for sale to individual buyers for the first time.
The lots just released have a retail value of about $300,000 and average about 3,600 square feet.
Newport Beach-based Burnham USA bought the village, located a little more than a mile away from the ocean along Saybrook Lane, in 2006, and subsequently spent over two years renovating the community and adding high-end amenities.
Lots being offered for sale are “a real estate gem for those who want to want to enjoy the benefits of the Surf City lifestyle without the large price tag,” according to Burnham USA.
Development Play
A 2.7-acre Huntington Beach strip center property eyed as a potential multifamily redevelopment site at the intersection of Beach Boulevard and Ellis Avenue has traded hands.
An LLC affiliated with Charleston, S.C.-based Greystar Real Estate Partners LLC paid nearly $10.3 million for the property, located at 18502-8510 Beach Blvd.
The property includes about 30,000 square feet of retail and office space but is expected to be redeveloped into a mixed-use project running as much as six stories, according to brokerage marketing material for the site from Charles Dunn Co.
Apartment owner and manager Greystar owns about half a dozen properties in Orange County, and paid about $55 million
for a San Clemente complex earlier this year.
A time frame for any construction at the Huntington Beach property has not been disclosed.
Albert Shilton and Blake Rogers of Charles Dunn Co.’s Los Angeles office represented the buyer, listed as Elan Huntington Beach LLC, as well as the seller, an affiliate of Los Angeles-based Progressive Real Estate.
The Charles Dunn brokers also have a 1.6-acre site along Beach Boulevard on the market for sale at $4.7 million. That property is also expected to see interest from apartment developers.
