REAL ESTATE

Brea is still booming. One of the north county’s best-kept secrets, the city is quietly but steadily luring many back-office operations for banks and insurance companies; it is thriving as a retailing center and it has even managed to nab some elusive manufacturing companies.

The Lee Goebel Co., a maker of precision aerospace parts, said it bought one 20,000-square-foot building for $1.3 million and leased another 12,000-square-foot building for $462,000 over 7 years in the six-building Brea Business Park on Palm Street. Goebel is moving from its headquarters in Anaheim.

And Josephson Properties, a Century City developer, said it would build a $30-million, 19-acre, 220,000-square-foot shopping center called Imperial Center East at Imperial Highway and Kraemer Boulevard.

Tenants are a Lucky supermarket, a T.J. Maxx clothing store and a stationer.