Anaheim’s Stadium Plaza Business Park Sold
In one of the largest sales of an Orange County industrial complex, a Northern California real estate investment trust has bought the 48-acre Stadium Plaza Business Park.
Spieker Properties in Menlo Park is believed to have paid $39 million in cash for the complex at the northwest corner of Katella Avenue and the Orange Freeway, industry sources said.
Michael Randall of Grubb & Ellis Commercial Real Estate Services, which marketed the property, acknowledged only that the amount paid was slightly less than the asking price of $42 million.
The seller was pension fund advisor the RREEF Funds in San Francisco, which had owned the 806,678-square-foot property for the past 12 years.
“This is the premier industrial business park in north Orange County,” said Shawn Kelter, also a Grubb & Ellis agent. “It’s an irreplaceable property for an investment portfolio.”
In terms of size and price, the sale of Stadium Plaza Business Park, with 108 tenants from TRW to Bear Automotive in 39 buildings, is the largest transaction involving a single industrial site in the county in the last two years--and one of the largest ever--said Randall and Kelter.
The new owners are expected to hold and manage the property as an investment and not displace any tenants.
Other major transactions, Kelter said, also are in the works as
pension fund advisors dispose of properties to pay pension benefits. Real estate investment trusts such as Spieker are gobbling up what they can.
The Stadium Plaza site, stretching from the north side of Anaheim Stadium to Cerritos Avenue, is considered one of the better developed industrial properties.
It has so-called incubator buildings of 1,200 square feet for small, young companies and can offer bigger units as the companies grow, said Robert Socci of Voit Commercial Brokerage in Anaheim.
“It’s a one-of-a-kind property,” Socci said. “And the location is fantastic with good freeway access.”
Executives at Spieker, a publicly owned real estate investment trust, and RREEF Funds could not be reached Wednesday for comment.
Kelter said 94% of Stadium Plaza was leased at the time the sale was completed last week. The $42-million asking price amounts to $52.05 a square foot. About 75% of the complex consists of single-tenant buildings; the rest are multi-tenant.
Tenants use the buildings as warehouses, manufacturing plants, computer component assembly operations, medical laboratories and research and development sites.
TRW has an industrial warehouse for records storage. Bear Automotive makes diagnostic equipment for automobiles. Graybar Electric and Familian Pipe & Supply distribute parts from buildings there, and Mother’s cookies ships some of its confections from there. Universal Electron makes universal television and VCR remote controls that retailers such as Fry’s and Circuit City sell.
Randall said that Spieker, which entered the Orange County office and industrial market last year, was one of three final bidders for Stadium Plaza.
Spieker is an “aggressive” buyer and is making its presence known “in a big way,” he said. It has picked up office buildings in Irvine, where it has a local office, and Newport Beach, and is in the process of buying office buildings adjacent to The City shopping center.
“They’re a powerhouse,” Randall said.
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Big Sale
48- acre business park brings undisclosed sum.
