A two-building office property in Irvine a few blocks from John Wayne Airport has traded hands for $36 million.
An affiliate of Portland, Ore.-based private investor J&R Group LLC bought 2525 Main St., a five-story building at the intersection of Cartwright Road and Main. A one-story data center connected to the office was also part of the sale.
The two buildings total about 143,700 square feet and sold for about $250 per square foot.
An affiliate of Palo Alto-based real estate investor Menlo Equities LLC sold the property in one of the pricier office sales in the airport area this year.
Occupancy
Menlo paid about $20 million for the property, which was previously known as Cartwright Corporate Center, in 2010 when it was about 80% leased. It’s now closer to 84% leased, according to CoStar Group Inc. records.
The property holds the headquarters of supply chain management services company Verify Inc. and real estate investor True Investments LLC, among other tenants.
It’s one of a few Orange County properties owned by affiliates of J&R Group, according to property records. The company has the bulk of its portfolio in Oregon. At least one of its executives has a home in Newport Beach.
The buyer got a $17 million loan from Bank of America to help finance the purchase, according to property records.
The new owner is expected to upgrade the building’s common areas and the property’s landscaping, among other improvements.
The 7-acre property also has some excess land that could presumably be developed by the new owners.
Brokers
Joe Bevan, executive vice president for the Irvine office of JLL, represented the buyer in the off-market sale, and the brokerage will handle the leasing and property management for the new owners.
Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Executive Director David Dowd represented Menlo in the investor’s first reported sale in Orange County in a few years.
Menlo owns several other Irvine properties in the vicinity of 2525 Main. It’s most prominent office in the immediate area is Quintana, the largely empty Irvine office campus that once served as the local hub of Washington Mutual Inc. It bought the four-building, 415,000-square-foot campus out of receivership in 2010 for an estimated $69 million.
A venture including Los Angeles-based MPG Office Trust and Australia-based Macquarie Office Trust went into default on the campus in 2009 after it stopped making payments on a $106 million mortgage.
Menlo hasn’t announced any sizeable leases at Quintana since the acquisition. The company has reportedly been holding out for a large tenant to lease a bulk of the empty space there.
