Irvine Co. Buys Connecticut General Property

Irvine Co. acquired the 171,979-square-foot Palm Court office and retail property at 15615-15635 Alto Parkway in Irvine from Connecticut General Life Insurance Co. Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but the seller was asking $38.5 million when marketing the property, which includes two four-story office buildings and a one-story retail building. Connecticut General was represented by A. Martin Morgenstern, Rick Hamilton, Jon Nesbitt and Rick Kaplan of Cushman Realty Corp. Irvine Co. represented itself.

Insurance Auto Auctions signed a 15-year, $25-million lease for the 35.5-acre site on Vermont Avenue north of the San Diego Freeway in Los Angeles that was home to Ascot Park auto race track. Insurance Auto Auctions will store vehicles and consolidate its Los Angeles-area operations at the site, which has been vacant for nearly 10 years, said David Prior of Klabin Co., who represented the landlord, Vermont Holdings. The tenant was represented by Jeff Morgan of CB Richard Ellis.

California Property Investments acquired the 166,616-square-foot Cabrillo Park office building at 1901 E. First St. in Santa Ana for $13.5 million from Harpo LLC. The property was a racquetball club before it was converted into an office building, said Gary Pesner and Mike Austin of Sperry Van Ness, who represented the seller. The buyer was represented by Gil Marrero of Voit Commercial Brokerage.

Bicycle manufacturer Schwinn/GT signed a five-year, $6-million lease for 323,660 square feet of space at 13083 Slover Ave. in Jasmine Distribution Center in Fontana, where the company will consolidate warehouse and distribution operations now based in Santa Ana. The landlord, Adaya Asset Corp., was represented by Rob Fuelling of Los Angeles-based Investment Development Services, along with Amr Tannir of IDS and Chuck Belden of Cushman & Wakefield. The tenant was represented by Mark Latimer of Insignia/ESG.