Abbey Pays $20 Million for Transpark Center in Ontario

Abbey Co. continued its Southern California income-property buying binge last week with the purchase for about $20 million of Transpark Commerce Center, a 425,000-square-foot office and industrial complex in Ontario.

Don Abbey, principal in the Garden Grove-based real estate owner-operator, is now setting his sights outside the region. Backed by Dutch real estate investment group Rodamco’s $125-million equity investment in the company early this year and a just-signed $100-million Bank of America credit line, Abbey’s team is seeking both property and operating company acquisitions that could boost the firm’s portfolio value to more than $700 million by the end of next year.

The company’s strategy focuses on all-cash acquisitions of retail, office and industrial properties that cater to small locally based tenants. It also operates in-house construction, property management and marketing groups.

Abbey founded the company nearly a decade ago, but its growth has accelerated in the last two or three years. The firm’s portfolio of retail, industrial and office properties has expanded from 870,000 to 2.75 million square feet over the last 30 months or so.

The Transpark property, built in the early 1980s along the San Bernardino Freeway, is Abbey’s seventh acquisition this year. The 26.2-acre park’s four warehouse and distribution buildings, totaling more than 218,000 square feet, are entirely occupied by GTE Corp. Lead tenant GTE also occupies the complex’s 70,340-square-foot, two-story office building, the biggest of Transpark’s seven office buildings, which are 78% occupied.

The seller was life insurance company John Hancock Mutual.