Industrial Sales, Leases Tally Nearly 194,000 SF

In the Buena Park transaction, CB Richard Ellis reports that the Community Redevelopment Agency acquired the 101,000 square feet at a 3.66-acre property at 6955 Aragon Circle that will serve as its new city yard. The city paid $7.25 million for the property in what CBRE describes as one of the largest industrial sales to close in Orange County this year.

[IMGCAP(2)]The 101,000 square feet, which will replace the existing city yard at 8071 Page St., was built in two phases and is composed of a two-story 44,000-square-foot building that is adjoined to a three-story 57,000-square-foot building. The city, which bought the building from US Union Tool Inc., was represented by Josh Bonwell and Rick McGeagh of CBRE. The acquisition team at the City of Buena Park was led by assistant economic development director Ruben Lopez, director of public works Jim Biery and city manager Rick Warsinski.

According to Lopez, the agency's former 5.5-acre city yard property is part of an assemblage of approximately 12 acres to make way for affordable housing development. Over the next 18-24 months, the agency will retrofit the Aragon Circle property for city yard use, develop a master plan of development for the former city yard site and solicit development proposals from qualified developers. Once the move into the new facility is complete, demolition and remediation activities can begin in preparation for new development.

In the Garden Grove deals, Voit Real Estate Services reports that Corix Utilities US Inc. has signed a three-year lease for a 62,888-square-foot property lat 12822 Monarch St. and Bacozone Inc. has signed a five-year lease on a 30,000-square-foot property at 7091 Belgrave Ave. Corix is a company that helps communities build and manage infrastructure for water, wastewater and sustainable energy; Bacozone is an on-line bookseller.

According to Mike Bouma, senior vice president in the Anaheim Metro office of Voit's commercial brokerage division, Corix and Bacozone "are currently thriving, allowing them to secure comparatively low lease rates in well-located, high-quality buildings when most other companies are sitting on the sidelines waiting to see how the market plays out." The Corix deal was the third-largest new lease to be signed in West Orange County this year and the largest signed in Garden Grove this year, according to Bouma.

Corix, which has a contract with Southern California Edison as part of its program to upgrade five million electric meters to "Smart Meters," will use the building primarily to store its fleet of utility vehicles. The property owner, CRP II Monarch LLC, was represented by Bouma. Corix was represented by Gary Martinez of Transtar.

Bacozone's space is in a building that is owned by Kilroy Realty, which was represented by Bouma along with Louis Tomaselli and Mitch Zehner of Voit. Bacozone was represented by Branden Fella and Curt Stalder of Lee & Associates.