IRVINE, CA—GlobeSt.com has learned exclusively that industry veteran Malcolm O'Donnell has joined Swift Real Estate Partners as a partner to establish its Southern California expansion and to be responsible for that region. The San Francisco-based firm has also acquired an office building at 111 Pacifica here for an unspecified amount, which will house the firm's Southern California office where O'Donnell will be based.

Prior to joining Swift, O'Donnell served as managing partner at Akaku Capital, a Southern California real estate investment and management firm. He also served as senior managing director for CarrAmerica's Southern California region from 2000 to 2007. Prior to that, he served as VP of acquisitions for Beacon Properties and also worked at the development firms of Overton Moore and Majestic Realty. In total, he brings more than 30 years of real estate experience to Swift.

The building at 111 Pacifica is the firm's first office property in Southern California. A three-story, class-A, 67,496-square-foot institutional-quality property that is 74% leased with major tenants including Lee & Associates, Hall and Co. and RLI Insurance Co., it was acquired from Kilroy Realty. The deal was brokered by Bob Prendergast and Baker Morphy from JLL.

O'Donnell tells GlobeSt.com his goal is to expand Swift's footprint in Southern California. “They've leveraged off Swift's success in Northern California, where they have a strong team. It's vertically integrated—the firm owns and manages the asset from soup to nuts. Some people call it boots on the ground, but it's really the opportunity to study the property and know the fundamentals and to provide value as an operator.”

O'Donnell says his firm likes to be in A markets and is not afraid to buy a B building in an A market “where we can provide value to improve it. An A building in an A market is good, too, but often those end up being core or core plus. We're looking where we can add value to the property by looking at the capital plan. We want to spend our capital lively to achieve bang for our buck. This benefits the leasing momentum in the region as well as the asset we acquire.”

After putting together a capital plan for 111 Pacifica, the firm plans to add value to it. “It's a very nice property, but like all properties that are older, we want to provide some capital to the lobby and other components of the building,” says O'Donnell.

Now that office vacancy in Orange County is roughly 12%, and CBRE is reporting that there has been 1.6 million square feet of net absorption in the market year-to-date, O'Donnell says, “We like the fundamentals of Orange County. After years of declining rents post-recession, we believe the tide is turning now and gaining momentum with increasing rents. Certain submarkets—particularly in the Spectrum, which is where this building is located—have outperformed other regions of Orange County. The Spectrum has increased asking lease rates by 18.5%. There are trends in the market and submarket that we obviously like, and we want to capitalize on it.”