Yorba Linda’s Biggest Business Park Sold for $23.6 Million

A partnership led by Newport Beach-based real estate firm Layton-Belling & Associates has bought Yorba Linda’s largest business park, 341,446-square-foot Savi Tech Center, for $23.6 million.

The sale price set a record for industrial buildings in the area, according to Mitch Zehner of Voit Commercial Brokerage, who represented the buyers and sellers in the deal.

Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. sold the four-building campus, which was built in 1985 and is occupied by several high-tech and biomedical companies, including Sensor Medics and Curtin Matheson Scientific.

The purchase is just the latest in a string of Southern California acquisitions by Layton-Belling and its partner, Boston-based investment advisor Aldrich Eastman & Waltch. In the last two years, the group has bought more than 3.3 million square feet of real estate valued at more than $250 million.

Last year the partnership bought a 50% stake in a portfolio of offices from Cigna Investments. That $68-million purchase included properties in Orange, Irvine and Costa Mesa and another business park in the Savi Ranch area of Yorba Linda.

“The market is recovering in Yorba Linda,” said Phil Belling, Layton-Belling principal. “We think it has strong long-term potential.” The company was formed in 1990 by Belling and Steve Layton, two former Koll Co. executives.

Belling said his group plans to target other office and industrial buildings in Southern California for acquisition. Sources say Layton-Belling is working on another Orange County office building purchase. Belling declined to comment.