EL SEGUNDO, CA-Locally based private equity firm PCCP has provided a $21.5-million senior loan to finance the acquisition and lease-up of a four-building portfolio of class A industrial buildings totaling 801,933 square feet. The buildings are part of the Interchange Business Center adjacent to Interstate 215 in San Bernardino, CA.

A joint venture of Orange County, CA-based CT Realty Investors and Behringer Harvard of Dallas recently bought the four buildings, as reported on GlobeSt.com. PCCP notes that the buildings are 29% leased to two tenants, both third-party logistics providers, who are occupying 233,883 square feet. PCCP points out that the new owners bough the portfolio in an off-market transaction at a significant discount to replacement costs.

Ron Bonneau of PCCP commented on the financing: “We are confident in the buyer’s business plan to lease up the remaining vacant space to multiple tenants. Given the high quality of construction and the buyer’s low purchase price, we believe the portfolio will be able to become a competitive market participant which previously was not the case given the distressed nature of the previous ownership.”

Bonneau added that the Inland Empire industrial market is improving and that there is already a significant amount of interest in the remaining space in the portfolio. Net absorption totaled 1.6 million square feet in the third quarter and totaled 7.5 million square feet for the first three quarters of this year, which already surpasses the 2009 full-year total of 6.3 million square feet, according to a third-quarter market report from CB Richard Ellis. Grubb & Ellis reports even more favorable numbers, with nearly 10.3 million square feet of net absorption for the first three quarters, more than 3.3 million square feet of that in the third quarter.

The property that secures the new PCCP loan was built in 2007 and consists of four concrete tilt-up buildings ranging from 94,108 square feet to 354,108 square feet within Interchange Business Center, an industrial park that has a total of six buildings. The two buildings that were not included in the CT Realty-Behringer Harvarfd purchase are 100% occupied by Michelin Tires (801,000 square feet) and Dollar Tree (449,000 square feet).