SAN BERNARDINO, CA-Dallas-based Behringer Harvard and Aliso Viejo, CA-based CT Realty Investors have closed their third deal together with the acquisition of more than 800,000 square feet in four buildings at the six-building Interchange Business Center, a development of two million square feet along Interstate 215, approximately two miles north of the interchange with Interstate 210. The purchase price for the Interchange Business Center, excluding closing costs, was $30 million, according to a Nov. 29 public filing by Behringer Harvard. The sale was a direct deal between buyer and seller, who was not disclosed.

The Interchange Business Center was developed via a pubic-private partnership between the city of San Bernardino’s Economic Development Agency and Dallas-based Hillwood Investments, according to a report by GlobeSt.com in 2008. The two-million-square-foot project is listed on the Hillwood web site as a non-Hillwood-owned property.

Behringer Harvard made the investment through its Behringer Harvard Opportunity REIT II. Samuel Gillespie, COO of the REIT, said that the property "provided us with an attractive opportunity to capitalize on current market stress by acquiring class A industrial space in a recovering market at a significant discount to replacement cost.”

Carter Ewing, EVP of CT Realty Investors, noted that the company now owns a growing portfolio of Inland Empire industrial properties. Earlier this year, Behringer Harvard and CT Realty Investors acquired two other Inland Empire assets: the Archibald Business Center in Ontario and—in conjuction with two other partners—the El Cajon Distribution Center, which is also located in San Bernardino, and is being renamed the Inland Empire Distribution Center. The Interchange Business Center and the other two combined total more than 2.4 million square feet.

InterChange Business Center is a 144-acre project comprising six industrial buildings, five of which were certified LEED Silver, according to the previous GlobeSt.com report and Hillwood's web site. The center was developed on a site that underwent extensive remediation to render it suitable for development because it formerly was a military installation that was used for the storage, packing and testing of incendiary bombs and as a facility for manufacturing composites used in water softening.

As part of the development, San Bernardino’s Economic Development Agency and Hillwood worked with the San Bernardino Municipal Water District on a four-million-gallon water reservoir that is designated for fire suppression.