Pacific Castle Closes $31M in Retail Deals

IRVINE, CA-Pacific Castle has sold its 88,413-sf Plaza Empresa shopping center in Rancho Santa Margarita for $21.5 million and has bought a 56,436-sf Costco-anchored center in San Juan Capistrano for $11.2 million. The former was a value-added deal in which the company completed capital improvements and boosted leasing during the more than seven years it held the property, according to Rod Astarabadi, EVP of Pacific Castle. Pacific Castle says the Costco center also holds value-added potential via bringing the leases to market value. Plaza Empresa, at the corner of Santa Margarita Parkway and Empresa Street, is a mixed-use center with a tenant roster including the US Postal Service, Eagle Credit Union and Daily Sports Grill. The center was 97% occupied at the time of the sale, an increase from the 80% occupancy when Pacific Castle acquired the property in 1997. The buyer of Plaza Empresa was Cadence Acquisition LLC, a Colorado-based shopping center investment company. The Costco center is at 33953-33963 Doheny Park Rd. Both the Rancho Margarita sale and the San Juan Capistrano sale were brokered by Reza Investment Group of Irvine, which represented both the buyer and the seller in both transactions. The seller of the San Juan Capistrano center, which was 100% leased at the time of the sale, was PL San Juan LP, an entity owned by Kimco Realty Corp. of New York. Tenants at the Costco Center include Pet Smart, Staples, El Pollo Loco and Diamond Plus Jewelry. Pacific Castle, which specializes in working with Chinese-American investors, owns nearly $300 million in assets in Southern California and Nevada.