CAMARILLO, CA-Philanthropist and investor Fred Kavli has acquired the newly built Creekside Executive Center for $10.8 million and has named Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura to market the 128,000-square-foot project. The sale of the property, which is located at 4001-4087 Mission Oaks Blvd., is one of the largest transactions to take place in Ventura County in the last few years.

Mike Tingus, president of Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura Inc., comments that, “When a businessman of Fred’s caliber has enough confidence to invest in the market, it’s a good sign for commercial real estate here.” Kavli is the founder of development firm Sunbelt Enterprises and the founder of Kavlico, a Moorpark, CA-based manufacturer of sensors for the aeronautics and automotive industries. Kavli sold Kavlico in 2000 and established the Kavli Foundation, which supports research in his three primary areas of interest: nanoscience, astrophysics and neuroscience.

Tingus represented both Kavli and the seller, Bank of America; the bank was also represented by Lee’s associate vice president David Kim and principals Grant Harris and John Ochoa.

Creekside Executive Center consists of 14 buildings, including a two-story, 55,322-square-foot building for lease and 26 office condominiums with space ranging from 2,257 square feet to 7,315 square feet which are for sale or lease. The properties are suited for owner-users, investors and tenants, with medical use also permitted.

The team of Tingus, Kim and Ochoa, which is marketing the business park on behalf of Sunbelt, says that it has received considerable interest in excess of 40,000 square feet for Building A, a 55,322-square-foot multi-tenant office building. A second building totaling 4,904 square feet is in escrow to a medical/dental company and scheduled to close in mid-November.

Tingus says that both Sunbelt and its VP of real estate, Richard Green, “understood the value of this asset and its synergy with the two-million-square-foot-plus portfolio of commercial properties Sunbelt owns in the Oxnard Plain.” Sunbelt was established by Kavli, a native of Eresfjord, Norway, who began investing in real estate about 50 years ago.