THOUSAND OAKS, CA-Voit Development Co. of Newport Beach plans a value-added play at a two-building R&D/industrial project in the Newbury Park area of Thousand Oaks that the company acquired recently from Santa Monica-based Palisades Associates. The project, which occupies more than 26 acres in the 100-acre Conejo Spectrum Business Park, consists of a 342,400-sf building at 1465-1475 Lawrence Dr. and a 122,673-sf building at 1445-1455 Lawrence Dr.

Tim Regan, vice president of development and acquisitions for Voit Development, calls the property "an excellent value-add opportunity" because of its location in a very tight, built out submarket. Regan cites the high barriers to entry in the Conejo Valley submarket, where industrial vacancy rates were at 4.5% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2006.

Terms of Voit's acquisition were not disclosed. Palisades Associates paid $34 million for the property when it acquired it in 2005, when the buildings were approximately 75% leased, according to a GlobeSt.com report in September 2005.

The buildings are now 93% leased to a tenant roster including Baxter Healthcare, Alcatel, Teradyne, Sequoia Group and Kanner Corp. The high occupancy is the result of significant leasing activity generated by the project location and the "growing number of technology and research companies looking for space in the area," according to Regan.

Voit plans to complete interior improvements to the buildings. It will also increase the amount of space devoted to office use to help meet the market demand for industrial and R&D spaces with a higher ratio of office space.

Voit and the seller were both represented in the acquisition of the property by Kevin Shannon, Rob Hannan and Mike Moore of the El Segundo office of CB Richard Ellis, as well as Nick Gregg and Ken Ashen of the Camarillo office of CB Richard Ellis. Gregg and Ashen will be the leasing agents on the property.