Arden Sells Properties Totaling 844,000 SF for $150M

Centerpointe La Palma, located on the border of Los Angeles and Orange counties, comprises nine office buildings and one retail building on the corner of Orangethorpe and Valley View off the 91 Freeway. Arden was represented by CBRE's Bob Smith, Mike Kane, Paul Jones and Karen Scholte of the firm's Newport Beach office. The buyer was an unnamed East Coast pension fund adviser.

Two of the Centerpointe buildings are six stories, one is a four-story building and the rest are single-story. The complex is 92% leased to credit tenants that include BP and Honeywell, with minimum near term roll-over. Smith says that the deal "demonstrates the confidence that investors continue to have in the Orange County office market, particularly for core, stabilized assets."

The Orange Financial Center consists of three office towers located off the 22 Freeway at Town and Country Road and Parker Street. Arden was represented by the same CBRE team as in the Centerpointe deal. The buyer was an entity in a 1031 exchange controlled by Milan Capital Management, Inc., a real estate investment and management company based in Anaheim, CA.

[IMGCAP(2)]The three Orange Financial Center buildings include an eight-story main tower and two adjacent three-story buildings. The buildings are 98% leased to tenants that include insurance companies Word & Brown, as well as Calsurance, a division of publicly traded Brown & Brown.

Smith comments that the sale indicates that, "Stabilized, core assets with minimum near term roll-over and credit tenants continue to generate investor interest in Orange County, which speaks to the long-term confidence in our office market." He notes that the buyer was able to secure attractive long-term financing from an insurance company despite the difficult credit environment.

The two sales were among a number of deals closed recently by CBRE, which also brokered approximately 17,000 sf of class A office leases in three deals recently in Orange County at the Xerox Centre at 1851 E. First St. in Santa Ana. Merrill Lynch signed the largest of three leases in a 12,415-sf, five-year deal. CBRE's Mark Friend, Simon Dillon and Justin Hill handled all three of the lease transactions, valued at approximately $2.5 million cumulatively, on behalf of the landlord, WCB Properties.

Merrill Lynch will continue to occupy the 15th floor of Xerox Centre, which currently has a vacancy rate of just 9%. The lease is effective in June of 2009.

Other new tenants at the Xerox Centre include Liberty Credit Corp., which leased 2,254 sf and the Law Offices of David D. Mains, which will occupy 2,296 sf. The 15-story building is one of the most identifiable office properties in Orange County, situated at the axis of the 5/55 freeway interchange.