Irvine-based developer Sares-Regis Group, which is putting up a speculative industrial project near Long Beach Airport valued at close to $95 million, has its eyes on additional land in that area, according to reports.
The developer is a little more than three months into construction at Pacific Pointe, a collection of seven industrial buildings totaling 677,142 square feet at Douglas Park, a 260-acre masterplanned development next to Long Beach Airport.
Sares-Regis is building its project on about 34 acres at Douglas Park, which it bought from Chicago-based Boeing Co. The defense and aviation giant had a manufacturing plant on the land.
The buildings at Pacific Pointe will run from 33,455 square feet to 170,673 square feet and are being marketed for both sale and lease.
Sares-Regis officials have placed the total value of the project on completion at about $95 million. Pacific Pointe is said to be the first development of for-sale buildings in the South Bay in five years.
The developer is also said to be nearing a deal to buy additional Boeing-owned land in Long Beach that’s not part of Douglas Park.
Negotiations are under way for the sale of unused property located east of Lakewood Boulevard near the airport. The site would hold three light industrial buildings, according to airport officials.
Terms of the sale, first reported in the Long Beach Business Journal, haven’t been disclosed.
“The Long Beach and South Bay area is one of the nation’s tightest industrial markets,” Larry Lukanish, senior vice president in Sares-Regis’ commercial investment division, said in late February, around the time construction started at Pacific Pointe. “We expect a great deal of buyer interest.”
Another new commercial project the company has in the works includes a roughly 13.3-acre property in Santa Fe Springs, where Sares-Regis plans to build a 305,000-square-foot industrial building on the site without a specific tenant in mind.
The company paid more than $10.4 million, or about $18 per square foot, for the Los Angeles County land, according to brokerage data.
Hotel, Too
Santa Ana-based Nexus Cos. is tackling a different product type with its own development going up near Long Beach Airport.
Last month the developer announced the groundbreaking for a four-story, 159-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel next to the airport. The project is going up on a 4.5-acre site at Douglas Park near Lakewood Boulevard and Carson Street, a little more than a mile from the San Diego (I-405) Freeway.
“Early on, we recognized a need for hotels and restaurants in the development, and look forward to providing a new and convenient hotel option for business travelers,” said Nexus President Cory Alder.
Newport Beach-based Evolution Hospitality LLC is an equity partner in the development and will manage the hotel upon completion. The hotel is expected to open next March.
Other Orange County partners in the Long Beach project include T2 Development LLC, a Newport Beach-based development and investment firm that also provided equity for the project.
Evolution Hospitality and T2 Development were created last year by the restructuring of Newport Beach-based Tarsadia Hotels Inc., which was one of the largest privately owned hotel operators and developers in the U.S.
Tarsadia split into three entities, with Evolution Hospitality handling hotel management, T2 focusing on development, and investments headed up by Tarsadia Investments.
Nexus Cos., which last month broke ground on a $62 million, high-end senior living development in Costa Mesa called Vivante, has one other Courtyard by Marriott development to its name—a 155-room project it built a few years ago near its headquarters in Santa Ana. That property was sold last year for about $25 million.
Car Doctor
CarMD.com, an Irvine-based maker of automotive information products for consumers, has moved into newly renovated headquarters near John Wayne Airport, at 17352 Von Karman Ave.
The 100,000-square-foot facility houses roughly 80 employees and features 30,000 square feet of office space, 20,000 square feet of automotive testing space, and a 50,000-square-foot fulfillment center, according to the company.
CarMD’s main product is a self-diagnostic tool for consumers that helps explains why their car’s check engine light is on, among other uses. The product retails for about $120 and is designed to keep people from spending too much money on costly repairs.
An affiliate of the company bought the Von Karman office in 2010 for a little under $8.7 million, according to brokerage reports.
