COSTA MESA, CA-Jones Lang LaSalle SVPs Jay Nugent, Andy White and George Thomson are handling the leasing for MetroCenter at South Coast, a three-building, class-A office campus totaling more than 750,000 square feet here. The property has immediate availability for users ranging from 1,000 square feet to more than 45,000 square feet of contiguous space. Located in the South Coast Plaza area of the Airport submarket, the property features onsite amenities including 24-Hour Fitness Super Sport, Starbucks, Frutthies, Quiznos and MetroCafe and is within walking distance of the Orange County Performing Arts Center, South Coast Plaza and more than 80 restaurants. The campus is also near the I-405, 55 and I-5 freeways.

LOS ANGELES-RKF's EVP Rachel Rosenberg and senior director Robert Ury have secured the first three Southern California locations for Blue C Sushi, one of the first Kaiten sushi restaurants to provide conveyor-belt-style sushi using high-quality ingredients. The sites are at the Dome Entertainment Centerin Hollywood, the Village Walk in Tarzana and Fashion Island in Orange County. The company, which launched in Fremont, WA, in 2003, has since opened five additional locations in Washington and is now initiating its expansion within California's full-service fast-casual market. The Hollywood location opens October 18.

SALES

UPLAND, CA-MG Properties has purchased the Stoneridge Apartments, a 300-unit multifamily community on the southwest corner of Benson Ave. and West 8th Str. here, for $42 million from Sares-Regis Properties. The asset was marketed by listing brokers Dean Zander, Vince Norris and Margie Molloy of Hendricks-Berkadia as a stabilized asset with significant reposition and value-add opportunity with proven upside potential. The property is composed of 21 two-story buildings situated on nearly 12 acres and offers one- and two-bedroom homes. Exterior renovations were completed in 2007, and 75% of the unit interiors have been upgraded with luxury appointments such as wood-like flooring, Berber carpet, and new kitchen appliances including dishwasher, microwave, stove and refrigerator.

OCEANSIDE, CA-Inland Western MDS Portfolio has sold a 75,000-square-foot commercial building at 2235 Vista Way here for $17 million to Pacific Development Partners LLC. Bill Barnett and Doug Hogan of the San Diego North County office of Colliers International represented the buyer, while the seller was represented by Ryan Gallagher of HFF. The building houses LA Fitness, which has a 15-year lease on the building.

RICHFIELD, UT-Phillips Edison & Co. has sold Richfield Plaza, a retail center here, to an unnamed buyer for an undisclosed amount. Eli Mills and Tucker White, members of CBRE's Private Capital Group, represented the seller in the transaction. Located at 1080 South and US Highway 89, the 112,954-square-foot shopping center is currently 98% occupied with nine tenants including anchor Kmart. In other local CBRE and Salt Lake City-region news, Kensington Real Estate Group, represented by CBRE's National Retail Investment Group's SVP Philip Voorhees and VP Eric Gustafson, has sold the 69,339-square-foot Plaza 7-21, a mixed-use retail/office property in Salt Lake City for $12.5 million. CBRE's also represented the buyer, a private real estate investment company based in Southern California.

DEVELOPMENT

LAS VEGAS-Red Rock Developments has broken ground on a 180,235-square-foot food storage and distribution building for Nicholas and Co. Hansen-Rice is the contractor; financing and long-term ownership were provided by Lexington Realty Trust. Red Rock was represented in lease negotiations with the tenant by John Barker, Jr., and Gabriel Silverstein of Angelic Real Estate. Nicholas was represented by Kyle Roberts of Newmark Grubb ACRES from Salt Lake City. Silverstein and Louis D'Lando of Angelic also represented Red Rock in the $29-million financing and sale transaction with Lexington.

SAN DIEGO-Equity Residential and BlackRock have sold a development site at 6850 Mission Gorge Rd. here to Archrock Development Group LLC for $26.3 million. Ed Rosen and John Chu of Cushman & Wakefield represented the sellers. The 10.2-acre development site is fully entitled and permit ready for 444 multifamily units. The property features six themed common courtyards, a fitness facility and pool. One-, two- and three-bedroom units will be available. The site is located near the 8, 15 and 163 freeways.

FINANCING

NEWPORT BEACH, CA-Sabal Financial Group L.P. has introduced a new joint-venture equity platform for owners and operators of commercial real estate. The new offering will address market demand for equity in connection with value-add and reposition opportunities across all income-producing property types in the western US. With the new program, Sabal Financial Group now provides a single source for commercial real estate capital in both the joint venture equity and bridge debt small balance arenas. The offering allows Sabal to co-invest with local real estate operators in possession of competitive value-add projects, focusing on the underserved $2-million-$10-million equity check space. Led by commercial finance veteran Jim Martin, the program complements the firm's existing commercial real estate bridge offering. Sabal will provide up to 90% of a project's required equity, in concert with its bridge debt or third-party bridge debt.

BEAVERTON, OR-Oak Grove Capital has originated an $11.1-million Freddie Mac CME fixed-rate loan for Canfield Place, a seniors-housing community here. The 10-year loan, which carries a 30-year amortization period, was secured for Lytle Enterprises in order to refinance existing mortgage debt.  The CME option provides the necessary cash-out to return capital to the partners as well as complete contemplated capital improvements.

EXECUTIVE MOVES

SAN FRANCISCO-Rockwood-ADC LLC, a subsidiary of Auction.com LLC, has hired Jay Cross in the the firm's San Francisco office as SVP. Cross will be responsible for helping the firm expand its West Coast multifamily investment-sales practice, including its conventional and auction-based brokerage transactions.  Currently, Cross and his Rockwood team members are managing the marketing and sale of two institutional-quality southern California multifamily assets, totaling 392 units, utilizing a unique custom auction process orchestrated through Auction.com. Prior to joining Rockwood, Cross served as VP of Newmark Knight Frank and its San Francisco Bay Area predecessor Cornish & Carey Commercial. He has specialized in multifamily investment sales brokerages since 2003.

SAN DIEGO-The Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate has hired Kimberly Malasky as the new director of communications and administration. In her new role, Malasky is responsible for managing the development, implementation, monitoring and assessment of a broad range of strategies, services, policies and programs of the BMC. The scope of these responsibilities includes building strong and mutually beneficial relationships with constituents of the BMC, including: the real estate and financial services industries; donors to the BMC; members of the media; and the University of San Diego faculty, staff and administrators. She will also lead all projects in the communications department.

NEW BEGINNINGS

LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA-Independence, MO-based Xceligent Inc., a provider of commercial real estate research and marketing solutions, has entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with locally based ClientLook, a cloud-based customer-relationship management solution for the commercial real estate industry. The two companies plan to jointly develop, market and support a new brokerage productivity tool that combines ClientLook's contact-management and project-collaboration platform with Xceligent's commercial real estate research and property-marketing capabilities. According to Doug Curry, CEO of Xceligent, “This exclusive relationship with ClientLook enables us to satisfy the tremendous demand for CRM solutions in commercial real estate today as part of our suite of products.”
IRVINE, CA-Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc. has re-entered the residential warehouse lending business through its new division, Impac Warehouse Lending. The new division, which is currently accepting applications, will provide funding facilities to all lenders, but initially will focus on smaller mortgage bankers and credit unions, including some of Impac's current correspondent customers. Offering warehouse lending will provide added value for these customers, as well as increase the capture rate of its approved correspondent sellers' business, according to the firm. Impac Warehouse Lending will be financing conforming loans along with jumbo loans up to $3 million and high LTV HARP products up to 150% LTV, as well as providing competitive pricing while being customer service focused.