Orange County’s job market is set to continue its growth, if the office expansion of a locally based provider of employment background screening services is any indication.
Accurate Background Inc., which provides background checks and related security research products to businesses, said this month it will move to a new headquarters in Irvine to accommodate more employees, as well as future growth.
The company signed a 47,500-square-foot lease at the Irvine Business Center office campus near the intersection of the Santa Ana (I-5) and Laguna freeways.
Terms of the lease, made with Newport Beach-based Irvine Company, weren’t disclosed. Other buildings in the same complex have space available at monthly rents of between $1.15 and $1.30 per square foot.
Accurate Background’s lease, at 7515 Irvine Center Drive, is a little more than double the size of its prior space at two Lake Forest locations.
The Irvine space allows for improved client services, streamlined operations, amenities for employees and room for growth, according to the company, which was formed in 1997 and now employs about 240 people. It had less than 200 employees a year ago.
Accurate Background’s own employee growth tends to mirror the larger labor market: As more companies hire employees, demand for its screening services increases.
The company gathers information for 250 other employment screening companies, in addition to providing its products to more than 2,300 customers in a variety of industries.
“As the background screening industry evolves and grows more complex, we take pride in knowing that we have the facilities to aid in this process,” Chief Executive Dave Dickerson said in a statement.
Nursery News
Village Nurseries Wholesale LLC, an Orange-based specialty grower for regional landscape companies, also is counting on a strengthening economy, especially in the local real estate market.
The company said this month that it bought San Diego-based competitor Miramar Wholesale Nurseries Inc. for undisclosed terms.
The company said the deal “represents one of the largest nursery acquisitions in California in many years,” and it is expected to add as much as $12 million to Village Nurseries’ sales in 2014.
Miramar Wholesale Nurseries is a 20-year-old company that provides landscape plant materials for commercial property managers and landscape contractors in Southern California.
Its 200-acre site houses a 170-acre wholesale operation and a commercial landscaping store.
The acquisition expands Village Nurseries’ acreage from 700 to 870.
The deal allows the company to bolster its presence in San Diego and will “enlarge and increase our offerings to meet the needs of a resurgent real estate market in which landscape architects and designers will be demanding more plantings,” Village Nurseries Chief Executive David House said in a statement.
Center Sales
Costa Mesa-based shopping center owner Donahue Schriber has sold off a property in the Central Valley and two in Palm Springs for a combined $65 million.
In Salinas, it sold a 93,000-square-foot center known as Boronda Plaza to Cincinnati-based ARC Shopping Center REIT Inc. for $22.7 million, or about $244 per square foot.
The property, about 100 miles south of San Francisco, was about 98% leased. Donahue Schriber had owned it for about a decade.
In Palm Springs, it sold a pair of centers called Smoke Tree Commons and Smoke Tree Village to Columbia, Mo.-based TKG Management Inc.
Smoke Tree Commons, a 175,000-square-foot community center that’s 96% leased, sold for $32.5 million, or about $185 per square foot.
Smoke Tree Village, a 110,000-square-foot neighborhood center, sold for another $10 million, or roughly $91 per square foot.
Vegas Growth
Newport Beach-based real estate investor MIG Real Estate has paid about $13 million for an office complex in Las Vegas.
Colonial Plaza, a 110,738-square-foot complex on the western edge of Las Vegas, traded hands for about $117 per square foot. The seller’s name wasn’t disclosed.
It is MIG Real Estate’s sixth investment in a Las Vegas-based commercial property.
Nationwide, the company said it has completed about $800 million in acquisitions since 2009, including office, retail, hotel and apartment properties.
