What used to be Newport Beach-based Turner Development Corp. has a new name and focus.
The company, one of the area’s larger developers since its founding in 1979, is changing its name to Turner Real Estate Investments.
The switch reflects the company’s increasing emphasis on commercial real estate investment management, Chief Executive Rusty Turner said.
Turner plans to turn more of its attention to buying and fixing up distressed buildings in markets across California, Arizona and Nevada rather than ground-up development, a segment of the industry that’s largely come to a halt in the past couple years.
“We will do development again, but going forward, we expect to be doing a lot of acquisitions,” Turner said.
Through Turner’s history, the company has developed several million square feet of buildings and completed more than 270 acres of land development. Recent projects include the Turner Riverwalk, a 1 million-square-foot business park in Riverside.
It’s also been an active investor, buying about 1.7 million square feet of existing properties, so the new investment management focus isn’t foreign to the company, Turner said.
Sean Sheward, Turner’s chief investment officer, said 2011 promises to be “a watershed year” for commercial real estate as banks, lenders and special servicers sell off problem loans and properties at steep discounts.
The company already has made a few deals this year. Earlier this month, it reportedly paid $8.8 million for a 252,000-square-foot industrial complex near Reno-Tahoe International Airport in Nevada.
The project, called Glendale East Business Park, is being renamed the Turner Crossing Business Park. The company plans to spend another $2.5 million on landscaping, roofing and office improvements, according to local reports.
Turner plans to market the project, which is about 70% occupied, as industrial condos running from 6,000 square feet to 31,000 square feet. The building was bought from New York’s Sentinel Real Estate Corp., according to the Northern Nevada Business Weekly.
Other Turner deals of late include two buys in Arizona, including the purchase of a note tied to a property in Scottsdale.
The company is buying properties using a $30 million fund it raised in 2009, which targets deals in the $3 million to $30 million range. About 42% of the money in the fund has been invested; Turner expects to spend the rest by the end of the year.
The company’s also looking to partner with other investors on upcoming deals.
“We have more deals than dollars right now,” Turner said.
Legal Lease
Callahan & Blaine is staying in its Santa Ana headquarters.
The law firm, which specializes in business litigation and personal injury cases, recently renewed its lease for 27,000 square feet of space at 3 Hutton Centre in Santa Ana.
The firm signed an eight-year renewal for the entire ninth and 10th floors of the building, which is owned by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund, better known as pension fund TIAA-CREF.
It’s a slight increase in space from Callahan & Blaine’s last reported lease, struck in 2005.
Terms of the lease weren’t disclosed. Other space in the building is being marketed at monthly rents of $2 per square foot, according to brokerage data.
The new lease allowed the tenant to “lower overall occupancy costs, renovate its existing office and provide the firm the flexibility to continue to grow,” said Chon Kantikovit, a broker with the Newport Beach office of Grubb & Ellis Co., who along with colleague Jack McNutt represented Callahan & Blaine in the lease.
John Weiner, from the Newport Beach office of CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. represented the landlord in the deal.
Callahan & Blaine counts 28 lawyers and 56 employees in Santa Ana, according to the Business Journal’s January listing of local law firms. It ranks as Orange County’s 32nd largest law firm based on attorney count.
Residential
Newport Beach’s Surterre Properties, a high-end home brokerage, said it’s seen a big increase in pricey house sales the past year.
The brokerage, which began operations in 2006, said it worked on more than $1.1 billion of luxury real estate deals last year. That’s up 26% from 2009.
Company officials also said they’ve been the busiest local brokerage for some of the area’s most desirable markets.
In the past 13 months, “We have represented all of the five sales of $12 million or more in Newport Coast,” Chief Executive Gary Legrand said. Those deals included a $14.5 million deal for a home next to The Resort at Pelican Hill golf club that’s the highest recorded sale for a non-ocean front home in the area, he said.
Prior to those deals, there had been seven Newport Coast home sales of more than $12 million in the past 20 years, Legrand said.
For more on the luxury housing market see the Business Journal’s new column here.
