REAL ESTATE : January Proving to Be Busy Month for Making Deals on Land Projects
Clearly many people in Orange County’s real estate industry worked through the holidays because January has been a busy month for deal-making. Here are some of the bigger ones announced publicly:
* CYP Inc., an Irvine architecture and planning firm recently ranked first in the county in volume of projects, unveiled plans for a $1.2-billion Puerto Rican resort said to be the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. The resort includes five hotels, the first of which begins construction this year. The developers are IDG Resorts, Irvine, and TSA International, Honolulu.
* Swede-Cal Properties Inc., a group of California and Swedish investors, paid $15.3 million for Anaheim Corporate Center, four 4-year-old office and research buildings totaling 158,000 square feet on La Palma Avenue and Kellogg Drive. Commercial broker Daum Commercial Industrial Real Estate represented the buyer.
* SBD Group Inc. bought a 28,500-square-foot shopping center in Cypress for $5.6 million, said commercial broker Grubb & Ellis, which represented SBD. Selling the center, at the corner of Meridian Drive and Katella Avenue, was CC&F; Cypress-Katella Investments.
* Systemhouse Inc., a Cerritos computer company, signed a 10-year lease valued at $10.6 million for 42,000 square feet of office space at a seven-story building which is the first to be completed at Cerritos Towne Center. The center will be the largest development in Cerritos--125 acres when it’s finished--and is at Bloomfield Avenue and the Artesia Freeway.
* In what it called one of the largest leases signed in central Orange County in 1989, Union Bank Square in Orange said Pacific Bell renewed a lease for 170,000 square feet for two years at $8.5 million at an office complex in the Town and Country area of Orange.
* And Michael Brandman Associates, a Santa Ana environmental consultant and planner, recently snagged a contract to write an environmental impact report for more than 3,000 acres called Eagle Valley that the city of Corona plans to annex. The company didn’t say how much the contract was worth.
Several local companies opened new offices elsewhere:
* Lee & Associates Commercial Real Estate Services open a new Gardena office in the South Bay area Los Angeles. Head of the new office is real estate veteran Jack Rosenberg.
* General contractor Elliott Corp., Newport Beach, opened an office in the west San Fernando Valley town of Calabasas. The 13-year-old company, with a annual sales of $60 million, says it has a lot of work in the area.
And, there are a couple of new faces at local companies:
* Bill Dennis, formerly vice president of development for the Newport division of big Newport Beach developer Koll Co., has moved to Brinderson Real Estate Group in Irvine as president. Brinderson builds offices around Southern California. A former real estate broker, Dennis is said to have put together several big joint ventures at Koll in recent years.
* Meanwhile, Thomas Wilck Associates, an Irvine public relations firm, has gone international. Wilck recently hired Daria I. Novak, whose most recent job was as a State Department spokesman during the Tian An Men Square massacre in Peking. She also speaks Chinese. Wilck said the hiring was a “major commitment” to bag overseas clients, particularly Pacific Rim companies.
And finally, hold your breath no longer for California Centers Magazine, a trade publication aimed at the state’s shopping centers. The first issue comes out this month. Among the highlights, according to the Irvine-based magazine: “Deals of the Month,” “Personal Spotlight” and “Industry Meeting Calendar.”
