FBI Project

UTAH

The FBI's new $75 million, 160,000-square-foot field office at 425 W. Amelia Earhart Dr. in Salt Lake City is under construction by Dallas-based KDC in a joint venture with investment firm M.L. Harris & Co. Larry Wilson, KDC southeast division president, says the new building is expected to achieve LEED Gold certification. The new building is part of an effort by the FBI and the General Services Administration that developed a 10-year acquisition program aimed at replacing or modernizing 39 FBI field offices and four major resident agency facilities across the country. The bulk of these projects are being accomplished through build-to-suit lease construction, including the Salt Lake City project, which is expected to be complete late summer of 2012. The architect is Rees Associates of Oklahoma City and the general contractor is VCC Construction of Atlanta. M.L. Harris and KDC are the owners and developers of the facility, and the GSA will lease the building for 20 years on behalf of the FBI.

INLAND EMPIRE

Champagne Building

CT Realty Investors of Aliso Viejo, CA has acquired the 386,000-square-foot Champagne Building, an industrial property on 15.27 acres at 1671 Champagne Ave. in Ontario, from RGR Development Corp. for $17 million. The property is 50% occupied by Amcor PET Packaging, a global manufacturer of Polyethylene Terephthalate packaging with 35,000 employees and 300 facilities worldwide. With the Champagne acquisition, CT Realty expands its Inland Empire holdings to more than 3.3 million square feet. Earlier this month, the company announced its purchase of a 225,000-square-foot warehouse/distribution building on the grounds of the March Air Reserve Base in Moreno Valley, and last summer it bought the 1.4-million-square-foot Cajon Distribution Center in San Bernardino  with joint venture partner Westcore Properties Inc. In the Champagne Avenue building acquisition, CT was represented by Bill Heim of Lee & Associates in Ontario, with Jeff Smith of Lee representing the seller. Heitman provided debt financing for the acquisition and was also an equity provider.

Retailer buybuy BABY has signed a lease for 28,897 square feet at the Commons at Temecula at 40450 Winchester Rd. in Temecula. This is the first location for buybuy BABY in Riverside County and among the first that will open in Southern California, according to Scott Burns of Wilson Commercial Real Estate, who represented the landlord, Inland Western Retail Real Estate Trust, in the transaction. The tenant was represented by Scott Manclark of Cypress Retail Group. The Commons at Temecula is a 25-acre, 293,000-square-foot power center that is occupied by Pacific Sales, Jo-Ann Fabrics, Office Depot, Party City, Petco and Sports Chalet.

Splash Properties LLC sold a 290,047-square-foot industrial property on 17 acres at 311 W. Citrus Ave. in Colton to an undisclosed buyer for $4.15 million and leased back 110,000 square feet of the property for its stone fabrication business. The buyer was represented by Nicholas Y. Chang, Richard Lee and Francisco Camacho of the Ontario office of NAI Capital. The buyer will use the larger portion of the property for a food processing facility, according to the NAI brokers. Splash Properties was represented by the Riverside office of Lee & Associates.

Essex Realty Management was awarded the property management contract for the 86,000-square-foot Temecula Corporate Park at 43379-43397 Business Park Dr. in Rancho California Business Park in Temecula. The park, owned by Warren Lortie Investments Inc., is