$61M Finances 323,000-SF Empire Towers

ONTARIO, CA-New financing totaling $61 million has recapitalized the 323,000-sf, three-building Empire Towers Office Park, according to Buchanan Street Partners of Newport Beach. The property occupies a site at Inland Empire Boulevard and Haven Avenue.Timothy Hawthorne, EVP with Buchanan Street, explains that approximately $21.4 million of the recapitalization consisted of equity that Guggenheim Real Estate committed to acquire an interest in the office park that was formerly held by a joint venture of CIP Real Estate and South Charles Investment Corp., which bought the property in 2002. Guggenheim Real Estate is now the principal equity provider and majority owner in a joint venture with CIP.Buchanan Street Partners secured more than $39.6 million in long-term financing for the property, according to Hawthorne, who reports that the permanent financing was secured through Allstate at a fixed rate of 4.94% for five years, with the first two years of the loan at interest only. Office product of the caliber of Empire Towers in the Inland Empire "has become a very attractive asset class, both to investors and the lending community," Hawthorne says. As more and more professionals locate into the growing residential communities of the Inland Empire, he says, office driven occupations are following into a region historically known as a retail service, warehouse and manufacturing economy.The three buildings at Empire Towers are known as Empire Towers I, II and III and were developed by Lord Baltimore. Empire Towers I comprises 178,000 sf, while Empire Towers II and III account for the remaining 145,000 sf. The class A campus is considered one of the premier office developments in the Inland Empire.