CARSON, CA-Newton, MA-based CommonWealth REIT has acquired the 402,000-square-foot Northrop Grumman campus in the South Bay submarket here from two separate sellers in two transactions for $51 million. The combined sale was brokered by Kevin Shannon, John Ayoob and Scott Schumacher of the CB Richard Ellis South Bay office, which represented all three parties in both transactions. The sellers were JH Snyder and the Carson Cos.

The campus, located on the southwest corner of Wilmington Avenue and Glenn Curtiss Street in Carson, is 100% NNN leased to Northrop Grumman Corp. and includes five two-story office buildings serving as the regional anchor location for Northorp’s Information Systems sector. The buildings, which are part of the eight-million-square-foot master-planned Dominguez Technology Center, were originally constructed in 1987 for TRW, which was eventually acquired by Northrop as part of its Space and Mission Systems division. Northrop recently renewed the lease term for seven years.

The $51 million sale was one of at least three major office transactions brokered recently by CB Richard Ellis, including the $2.33 billion sale-leaseback of a portfolio of California State office buildings and three transactions in Playa Vista totaling $80 million on behalf of a receivership.

In the $2.33 billion deal, Shannon marketed an 11-property, 7.3-million-square foot portfolio of state office buildings on behalf of the California Department of General Services. A partnership led by Houston-based Hines and Antarctica Capital Real Estate LLC was the buyer.

In Playa Vista, in one of the three transactions the Los Angeles-based Ratkovich Co. and Penwood Real Estate Investment Management paid $32.4 million for 11 historic buildings totaling 537,130 square feet on four parcels of land totaling over 1.2 million square feet that includes the Spruce Goose hangar.

In the other two sales, Tishman purchased four of the nine parcels in the campus totaling 18.8 acres which are located adjacent to its recently completed four-building 325,000-square-foot, 7.7-acre, phase one development; a 10.7-acre parcel which is entitled for up to approximately 550,000 of office/studio production support space sold to Lincoln Property Co.

The three Playa Vista deals were brokered by Shannon, Schumacher, Stan Gerlach, Bob Dubbins and Rob Waller.