MILPITAS, CALIF. — Tasman Technology Park, a 610,000-square-foot office and R&D campus in Milpitas, has received an $84-million acquisition loan. The institutional-quality property is located at 1371 McCarthy Blvd., just north of San Jose. The 14-building campus is situated in the center of Silicon Valley’s “Innovation Triangle,” which is home to more than 7,000 technology companies. These include Array Networks, Fire Eye Inc., KLA Tencor, Lifescan, SanDisk and Touchstone Semiconductor. The seven-year, non-recourse, fixed-rate loan was arranged by Brad Zampa, Michael Walker and Megan Woodring of CBRE’s San Francisco office on behalf of the borrower, an entity owned by Lionstone Investments and Orchard Partners. The partial interest-only financing features a rate in the low 4 percent range. It was provided by an East Coast-based life insurance company. The seller, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, was represented by Russell Ingrum, Joe Moriarty, Sean Sullivan and Tyler Meyerdirk of CBRE Capital Markets’ Institutional Properties team.
San Francisco is a veritable boom town that has already surpassed the market roar of 1999. It can even conceivably be compared to 1849, when gold was discovered 100 miles east. In fact, this year is so utterly off the charts that most of us in the commercial real estate industry have never seen an upcycle like this in our entire careers. Witness the fact that through the first three quarters of 2014, San Francisco’s gross office absorption reached 7.6 million square feet. Net absorption in this same period was 2.4 million square feet. This compares with 1999, the record year, when gross absorption was 7.4 million square feet – and that was for the entire year! It is quite possible we’ll hit 10 million square feet of gross absorption by the time 2014 closes out. Incidentally, net absorption for 1999 was “only” 526,000 square feet. Not surprisingly, three out of the four biggest leases in the third quarter were completed by tech companies. The tech frenzy in San Francisco has been well documented. Most of the Silicon Valley companies want, or need, to have a presence in the city. The trend is employment-driven. Young techies don’t want to commute …
With the scarcity of vacant land in Orange County and the need for antiquated properties to be updated, the trend seems to be redevelopment with an eye on mixed-use retail, including a multi-story residential component. There are currently several new development projects either in the planning or construction phase. Los Olivos Marketplace – Irvine The Irvine Company plans to build Los Olivos Marketplace, a new 120,000-square-foot retail center across from its Los Olivos Apartment Community on Irvine Center Drive near the 405 Freeway in Irvine. This development would be situated adjacent to its existing 62,000-square-foot retail center, and just minutes from the firm’s Irvine Spectrum Cente. Whole Foods Market has already signed a lease for 40,000 square feet at the center. It plans to open in spring 2016. The Source – Buena Park On a more international scale, M+D Properties is building a 400,000-square-foot, mixed-use center known as The Source in Buena Park. It would include world-class, high-end retailers and restaurants, a 150-room Hyatt Place, a seven-story office building, a 1,200-seat movie theater, and a 54,000-square-foot performing arts center called YG Land, from South Korea-based entertainment company YG Entertainment. The project is expected to be complete early next year. Pacific …
PASADENA, CALIF. – A 59,268-square-foot retail property in Pasadena has received a $7.8-million loan. The center is located at 855–875 S. Arroyo Parkway. Notable tenants include Petco, BevMo and Staples. The owner is a large, nationally known owner and developer of commercial and multifamily real estate. Financing was arranged by Amos Smith and Sean Skelton of Johnson Capital’s Irvine office. The permanent, fixed-rate, non-recourse loan was provided by a national life insurance company. It features a 10-year term.
LOS ANGELES – Travers Realty Corporation has merged with the Southern California offices of Cresa. The merger adds 32 brokerage professionals to Cresa’s Los Angeles and Orange County operations. The firm has offices in West Los Angeles, Woodland Hills and Newport Beach. Cresa will maintain the current Travers Realty headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles. It will operate as Travers Cresa. The newly combined firm will have nearly 150 employees within the region. The new iteration will specialize in commercial lease and purchase transactions, including project management, lease administration, capital markets advisory work, site selection and corporate portfolio management.
No one will deny that the Orange County industrial market is tight, boasting a 4.1 percent vacancy. If you are an industrial user looking for 100,000 square feet or more, your options are extremely limited, as supply and demand are not working in your favor in terms of rental rates and landlord concessions. According to CoStar, positive net absorption was just above 900,000 square feet for the second quarter of 2014. Compare that with the 978,000 square feet currently under construction and it is easy to see why most believe these rate and scarcity trends will continue. A number of large warehouse and industrial buildings in Orange County are also being raised and converted to high-density residential or data center space. These facts beg the question, where will all the industrial users go? Two counterbalances have the potential to cool the decreasing vacancy and create disintermediation to the benefit of Orange County industrial users. As rental rates continue to rise in Orange County, more and more companies are being lured to the Inland Empire where they can still make two port trips a day and consolidate into a much more efficient and affordable building. Companies that grew by necessity in …
SAN DIEGO – The 36-unit Hillcrest Apartments in the San Diego submarket of Hillcrest has received $7.4 million in construction-permanent financing. The community will be located at 4021 Eighth Ave. Financing will be used to develop the property, which is scheduled for completion in early 2016. The construction loan converts to a permanent loan at stabilization. The loan also carries an earn-out feature that allows the borrower to draw additional loan dollars at stabilization. It features a 4.2 percent rate with an interest-only period of up to 27 months. Financing was arranged by HFF’s Aldon Cole and Bryan Clark on behalf of Veritas Urban Properties. The 12-year, fixed-rate loan was arranged through a correspondent life company lender.
The Los Angeles industrial market continues to lead the country with the lowest vacancy of any industrial market. The combination of the overall market’s size and lack of inventory continues to put upward pressure on rents. Not only is there limited inventory, but a lack of quality product puts top economical facilities in high demand. The inability to build new product readily, combined with increasing demand, changes the focus of the marketplace going forward. As rents for high-quality properties continue to rise, developers and land owners are looking for ways to redevelop existing product to take advantage of this need. A number of redevelopment projects have recently commenced construction, and many of those properties are already pre-leased prior to completion. This increased demand also gives owners of older, less functional properties the ability to spend the necessary funds to upgrade their facilities with the anticipation of receiving higher rents and a return on their investment. The increase in demand from international commerce through the Port of Los Angeles, combined with growth in the manufacturing, aerospace and healthcare sectors, have all assisted in this overall increase in demand. The need for third-party logistics companies to acquire large chunks of space to …
SAUSALITO, CALIF. – Greystone’s recently expanded West Coast operations team has funded three Western-based multifamily loans totaling $46.5 million. The loans include a $23.4-million refinance for a 90-unit community in Sausalito, Calif.; a $10.4-million refinance for a Class A multifamily project in Mountain View, Calif.; and a $12.7-million acquisition loan for a Class A multifamily property in Goodyear, Ariz. The Sausalito loan features a 12-year term with five years of interest-only. The other two loans feature 10-year terms. Financing was originated by Tim Thompson of Greystone’s San Francisco office under the Fannie Mae Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS) program include.
Multifamily remains the most desirable asset class in Orange County due to a steady increase in apartment rental demand, strong sector fundamentals and the county’s emergence as a Southern California leader in the economic recovery. These factors have become a catalyst for a surge in multifamily asset construction. Apartment rental demand continues to grow in Orange County due to the high barriers to entry in the housing market and recent memories of the Great Recession. Median home values, which now exceed $580,000, place home ownership out of reach for many households. Orange County’s population also grew 4.31 percent from 2010 through 2014, according to Census data. This growth pattern is predicted to hold through 2019, with an expected increase in population of 5.17 percent, or an average of 32,478 residents annually. Orange County’s emergence as a leader in Southern California’s economic recovery is evidenced by superior employment rates in comparison to competing markets. Orange County experienced a high unemployment rate of 10.2 percent in January 2012. That rate has now declined 4.89 percent, as of May 2014. Orange County’s employment figures have increased investor confidence in the region, especially when compared to the national average of 6.3 percent, California’s 7.8 …