Seller of $27M Business Park Exits Early

EL MONTE, CA-Scanlan Kemper Bard Cos. of Portland, OR has sold the 182,352-sf Arbor Courtyard for $27.12 million after reaching its investment goals sooner than expected and deciding to take advantage of a strong sellers' market. SKB principal Todd Gooding tells GlobeSt.com that the Portland-based firm, which bought the office and industrial park for $17.7 million less three years ago, had planned to hold it for five and a half years but wound up selling it "for more than we originally thought we would get for it after five and a half years."

Gooding explains that SKB's original business plan called for holding the property for five and a half years because the company assumed a five-and-a-half-year loan when it bought the business park at 9420-9500 E. Telstar in August 2004. He says the decision to sell was based on a combination of factors, including rising rents, a renewal by the main tenant and capital improvements by SKB that added value to the property, which is about 40% office and 60% industrial.

SKB had counted on some appreciation from rising rents because it knew the market was getting tight when it bought the building. However, the property's main tenant, the California Air Resources Board, was a question mark because the state agency was on a month-to-month lease and had not yet committed to a renewal.

Thanks to building improvements by SKB, the Air Resources Board renewed and extended its lease to 2014. The agency now occupies about 40% of the project, which was approximately 95% leased at the time of the sale to Boston's TA Realty Associates.

The Arbor Courtyard consists of five buildings, two of them 100% office space, with the remaining three buildings used as office and industrial warehouse/light manufacturing space. SKB's sale of the property was brokered by the Sacramento-based Palmer Team.