CIP Acquires Industrial Interests

CIP had originally purchased the two facilities, Milliken Business Center and Brea Canyon Business Park, in 2001 in what the company describes as a short-term business plan. In the new acquisitions, it says, CIP has recapitalized the properties by placing long- term fixed rate financing on the projects. The 10-year, competitively priced debt financing from JPMorgan Mortgage Capital has an interest only feature and was arranged for CIP by Buchanan Street Partners of Newport Beach.

CIP says that its acquisition of the properties satisfied Alex Brown Realty's short-term investment strategy and created a long-term, stabilized investment in quality industrial assets for its private capital group, says Chuck McKenna, a principal at CIP. The company recently completed significant improvements to each of these parks and upgraded the tenancies as well.

Milliken Business Center is a 12-building, 157,701-sf, multi-tenant industrial park situated along the I-10 Freeway, close to the I-15 Freeway and the Ontario Airport. Brea Canyon Business Park is a 79,875-sf, multi-tenant industrial park in Walnut, in the City of Industry submarket. It is close to both the 57 and the 60 freeways, both of which are major routes for traffic to and from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

CIP Real Estate is a locally based real estate investment company that specializes in the acquisition, development, repositioning and management of office, business and industrial parks throughout Southern California. Over the past year, CIP has completed nearly $200 million in acquisitions and dispositions, including the recent acquisition of four of the eight office buildings in the Centerpointe Office Park in Irvine. Besides McKenna, its principals include Eric Smyth and Robert Strom.